Exams are Not Good Forms of Assessment

Exams are Not Good Forms of Assessment Assessments can be classified into few categories which are discussion, self- report, observation, portfolio assessment, practical work, demonstration, class activities and oral presentation. In the similar way, assessment can also be defined as a learning process that provides information on students learning and guides student to make great changes in their studies (Business Dictionary). In general, examination is non-destructive inspection, detailed investigation, or analysis of objects, products, or materials to decide their conformation to specifications with no special laboratory apparatus or technique. It includes sensual experiment such as auditory, visual, tactual, olfactory and gustatory or simple manipulation and measurement. Besides, it is also a testing of qualification of students in their examinations. (Business dictionary).There are two types of examinations that can be found which are standardized exams (commercial) and locally developed exams. 1.2 Current Statistical Information At present many schools, colleges, and universities assess their students by means of final examinations. These can be very stressful and majority of students usually do worse in normal exams compared to in other forms of assessment. However, it may be a good early practice for students for their future if success depends on the ability to deal with pressure and perform well on big occasions (Newman 2000). Based on the experiment that conducted by Qureshi, Alam, Khan and Sheraz (2002) in Women Medical College, Abbottabad, Pakistan, the statistics shows that a rise in systolic blood pressure by an average of fifteen mm Hg was observed in eighty eight percent of the students as compared to pre-examination readings. The parameters of blood cell determined before examination and during examination were compared .Those results are recorded and presented in Figure 1 and Figure 2. As a result, it has been proven that examination stress can affect the blood cell parameters and bring such huge impact to students health. First of all, the main reason examination should not be replaced with other forms of assessment is because of the equality of opportunity it has. The best application of it is the content of knowledge and it is fair enough to all the students who have to sit for the same exam using the same method in one particular country. For an instance, examination allows for a standardized administration to a large numbers of students and thus it is more convenient to measure and compare students standard. Of course, it cannot be denied that it is very useful for accessing individual students as well. 2.2 Test on students performance. Besides that, examination can test on students performance by reflecting the way how students express themselves in their own words based on what they have been taught in class. Throughout the whole process of examination, student will be able to adopt and implement in a faster speed and improve their knowledge and performance during assessment (Assessment Handbook 2006). For this purpose, students can spend more time to do revision on other weaker subjects. 2.3 Brings knowledge to students. In addition, students will gain more knowledge. This is because examination is used to determine students ability to draw on a wide range of knowledge. It is to make sure that students can fully apply their knowledge in their daily life but not misuse their knowledge. The knowledge on science, geography and mathematics will be helpful for them to do better in everything in their life. Examinations should be replaced with other forms of assessment. 3.1 Assessment gives better explanations to students, The very first advantage all learners can have by doing assessment is that assessment gives better explanations to students. So that learners will be able to understand clearly and quickly on what they have learned after doing all the assessments. This ensures that students can absorb the syllabus completely but not partially and understand what they are learning about. As everyone knows, students who have good understanding will surely do better than those that do not understand every single thing. 3.2 Assessment helps learners to improve their performance. Moreover, learners are given timely feedback about the quality of their works and try to improve it without repeating any mistakes (Young 2005). Learners are also given some useful advices and recommendations by teachers about how to make things better. Every learner always needs good suggestions and feedbacks from others so that it will lead them to the road of success. This statement can be shown that assessment helps learners to improve their performance. 3.3 Assessment tests children in a proper and better way. Additionally, assessment tests children in a proper and better way as it could determine childrens ability to express oneself during oral presentation. For an example, children will be more confident in talking, presenting and voicing out their views, opinions and ideas. Apart from that, a good assessment could test children on their analysis skills and creativity. Through that particular way, children will be having the opportunity to learn to improve on their thinking skills and have more mature thinking than previous as efficient assessment are more focusing on higher level thinking skills (Crehan 1991). Students will probably give out more creative and special ideas. In the similar way, students will also get to sharpen their research and planning skill after doing many researches for assessment. 3.4 Examination does not work on students. Other than that, the reason why examination does not work on students is because of examinations usually test on students memory but not their real understandings (Newman 2000). In the other words, this statement also means that student who has good memory can do excel in all the tests. On the other hand, student with bad memory might get low grades. There are also some lazy students who always do last minute revision tend to memorise everything on their notes without even trying to understand the principles. Therefore, students often assume that they understand and eventually they will never remember things that they have learned before. Also, examinations tests students ability to keep cool more than their intelligence. (Newman 2000). A case in point, during the examination, if a student is too nervous, the student normally will forget about everything. Hence, student frequently needs to keep himself /herself cool so that student can perform well in exam and avoid themselves from d oing mistakes in the test. 3.5 Examination brings negative effects to students. Furthermore, examination brings more negative effects than giving more positive effects to students. Firstly, over-testing will also cause children to have stress. In most of the schools, students will be sitting for more than four examinations in a year and that can be so stressful to students. Stress is invisible and difficult to be seen. That is why many people do not realise the power of stress. Consequently, there are many commit suicide cases that can be seen in newspaper in our country recently such as a large number of students who get unsatisfied results in the exam. Some of the students cannot handle the pressure and accept the fact will eventually choose to end their life by committing suicide. Besides, dreadful examinations can cause personal problems such as peer pressure and low confidence to students. According to some legal reports, students will lose their self confidence in their studies and prone to exhaustion and illness when they cannot bear with the large tensio n. Conclusion Based on the evidences that I have pointed out, I strongly agree that examination should be replaced with other forms of assessment. The main reason is because I always believe that other forms of assessments are more beneficial to students compared to written examinations. As I have mentioned above, the disadvantages of examination are slightly more than its advantages and it has greater impact on students. Thus, there are several serious actions that are needed to be carried out in order to solve this problem. To overcome this particular problem, the very first thing government, ministry of education, or other relevant bodies should do is to start practicing both study methods which are examination and assessment on students. Those relevant bodies will have to examine students performance from time to time. So, comparisons and differences can be easily made and seen after some period of time. Then, the effects of other forms of assessment on students can be proven to everyone. Of c ourse, the importance of other forms of assessment should not be ignored too. In fact, education department should try to emphasis more on the advantages assessments and also introduce this new education system to every school. For example, students grades are all depended by their performance in the form of presentation, oral assessment, practical work and many more to count. So that it will be an early practice for students before they step into their later working life or social life. It can be said that all of us are afraid of examinations. In the meantime, examinations should be replaced with other forms of assessment in all the schools as it may be a huge burden for students. Huge burden will not only cause students to lost interest and but also lost concentration in studying. Last but not least, I personally think that the process of doing assessment is much more interesting than sitting for examination. At least, assessment is less stressful compared to examinations and thus it may be an attraction to students. Through assessment, we can learn many things that can never be found in the text books. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Students will have improvement in their studies if they are hard working to do more practices and never ever try to give up whenever they fall. On the contrary, if students do not even bother to put effort in their studies, no one can actually help them. In short, efforts are to be made to lead our education to reach a higher level.

Quantative analysis of your food diary Essay

You need to write up your analysis of your food diary. State how long you have kept your food diary for, and write about the following points: 1. Consider how you have recorded your information. Where have you got your information from that will be analysed – how useful are these sources of information? (e.g food labels, weighing portions, recipes etc) 2. Research the Recommended Nutritional Intakes for your age and gender on http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutguideuk.pdf . Choose 3 whole days of your food diary how does your food intake compare to the recommended Nutritional Intakes. Remember you need to break the food composition down into the main food groups including vitamins (in particular vitamin C) and the energy from fat in your food. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your food intake? Consider other recommended food intake sources such as five a day and food standards agency eatwell plate. How does your food intake measure up to this? 3. You may find it useful to research how many calories you should be intaking for your lifestyle. (a useful site http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/understanding-calories.aspx ) 4. Consider the amount of activity that you have done over the course of the week – what are the strengths and weaknesses of this level of activity? (another useful site http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults.aspx ) 5. Finally in the analysis consider any Lifestyle influences: as relevant, eg personal food preferences, cultural, economic, social, availability of 6. time; day-to-day variations, e.g week days/weekends Once you have done this you need to move on to part 2 of the assignment task! Part 2 1. Provide a 7 day nutritional plan to improve your nutritional health. 2. You should include a meal plan which addresses all of the issues analysed in your food diary analysis. This includes what you are eating and how it relates to social policy as stated above. 3. Consider the change for life campaign (http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx) what can you include in your nutritional plan that changes your life? 4. What about your activity levels? In your plan you need to consider your levels of activity analysed in your food diary. How can you improve these? (remember it is not just about joining a gym, you could consider walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift!!) 5. Finally look again at the issues that you have highlighted in terms of lifestyle factors that influence – what can you do to change them? (think outside of the box here, and be realistic). Include these changes in your plan. 6. You may design and present this information in any format you wish, however, you might want to consider some kind of template or grid to present your information on. 7. Remember your nutritional plan must be SMART 8. In your plan you should assess how the plan will meet and improve your nutritional needs – you need to relate your information to social policy (five a day, change for life, RNI, the eatwell plate) (M3) 9. You should also evaluate how the changes that you are making might improve your health and wellbeing. (D2) (useful sites http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/prevention-wellness/food-nutrition/healthy-food-choices/nutrition-tips-for-improving-your-health.html http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/Goodfood/Pages/Goodfoodhome.aspx http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/children/general-health-advice/eat-smart/food-science/improving-your-diet/ Remember all of the sites that you use must be referenced! That is both in the text using Harvard referencing and by including a reference sheet!

Relational Calculus Essay

Introduction Procedural Query language query specification involves giving a step by step process of obtaining the query result e.g., relational algebra usage calls for detailed knowledge of the operators involved difficult for the use of non-experts Declarative Query language query specification involves giving the logical conditions the results are required to satisfy easy for the use of non-experts Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 1 TRC – a declarative query language Tuple variable – associated with a relation ( called the range relation ) †¢ takes tuples from the range relation as its values †¢ t: tuple variable over relation r with scheme R(A,B,C ) t.A stands for value of column A etc TRC Query – basic form: { t1.Ai1, t2.Ai2,†¦tm.Aim | ÃŽ ¸ } predicate calculus expression involving tuple variables t1, t2,†¦, tm, tm+1,†¦,ts – specifies the condition to be satisfied Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 2 An example TRC query student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor ) department (deptId, name, hod, phone ) Obtain the rollNo, name of all girl students in the Maths Dept (deptId = 2) {s.rollNo,s.name| student(s)^ s.sex=‘F’^ s.deptNo=2} attributes required in the result This predicate is true whenever value of s is a tuple from the student relation, false otherwise In general, if t is a tuple variable with range relation r, r( t ) is taken as a predicate which is true if and only if the value of t is a tuple in r Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 3 General form of the condition in TRC queries Atomic expressions are the following: 1. r ( t ) -true if t is a tuple in the relation instance r 2. t1. Ai t2 .Aj compOp is one of {, ≠¥, =, ≠  } 3. t.Ai c c is a constant of appropriate type Composite expressions: 1. Any atomic expression 2. F1 ∠§ F2 ,, F1 ∠¨ F2 ,  ¬ F1 where F1 and F2 are expressions 3. (∀t) (F), (âˆÆ't) (F) where F is an expression and t is a tuple variable Free Variables Bound Variables – quantified variables Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 4 Interpretation of the query in TRC All possible tuple assignments to the free variables in the query are considered. For any specific assignment, if the expression to the right of the vertical bar evaluates to true, that combination of tuple values would be used to produce a tuple in the result relation. While producing the result tuple, the values of the attributes for the corresponding tuple variables as specified on the left side of the vertical bar would be used. Note: The only free variables are the ones that appear to the left of the vertical bar Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 5 Example TRC queries Obtain the rollNo, name of all girl students in the Maths Dept {s.rollNo,s.name | student(s) ^ s.sex=‘F’ ^ (âˆÆ' d)(department(d) ^ d.name=‘Maths’ ^ d.deptId = s.deptNo)} s: free tuple variable d: existentially bound tuple variable Existentially or universally quantified tuple variables can be used on the RHS of the vertical bar to specify query conditions Attributes of free (or unbound ) tuple variables can be used on LHS of vertical bar to specify attributes required in the results Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 6 Example Relational Scheme student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor) department (deptId, name, hod, phone) professor (empId, name, sex, startYear, deptNo, phone) course (courseId, cname, credits, deptNo) enrollment (rollNo, courseId, sem, year, grade) teaching (empId, courseId, sem, year, classRoom) preRequisite (preReqCourse, courseID) Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 7 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Example queries in TRC (1/5) 1)Determine the departments that do not have any girl students student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor) department (deptId, name, hod, phone) {d.name|department(d) ^  ¬(âˆÆ' s)(student(s) ^ s.sex =‘F’ ^ s.deptNo = d.deptId) Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 8 Examples queries in TRC (2/5) Schema 2)Obtain the names of courses enrolled by student named Mahesh {c.name | course(c) ^ (âˆÆ's) (âˆÆ'e) ( student(s) ^ enrollment(e) ^ s.name = â€Å"Mahesh† ^ s.rollNo = e.rollNo ^ c.courseId = e.courseId } Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 9 Examples queries in TRC (3/5) Schema 3)Get the names of students who have scored ‘S’ in all subjects they have enrolled. Assume that every student is enrolled in at least one course. {s.name | student(s) ^ (∀e)(( enrollment(e) ^ e.rollNo = s.rollNo) → e.grade =‘S’)} person P with all S grades: for enrollment tuples not having her roll number, LHS is false for enrollment tuples having her roll number, LHS is true, RHS also true so the implication is true for all e tuples person Q with some non-S grades: for enrollment tuples not having her roll number, LHS is false for enrollment tuples having her roll number, LHS is true, but RHS is false for at least one tuple. So the implication is not true for at least one tuple. Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 10 Examples queries in TRC (4/5) Schema 4) Get the names of students who have taken at least one course taught by their advisor {s.name | student(s) ^ (âˆÆ'e)(âˆÆ't)(enrollment(e) ^ teaching(t) ^ e.courseId = t.courseId ^ e.rollNo = s.rollNo ^ t.empId = s.advisor} 5) Display the departments whose HODs are teaching at least one course in the current semester {d.name | department(d) ^(âˆÆ't)(teaching(t) ^ t.empid = d.hod ^ t.sem = ‘odd’ ^ t.year = ‘2008’)} Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 11 Examples queries in TRC (5/5) Schema 6)Determine the students who are enrolled for every course taught by Prof Ramanujam. Assume that Prof Ramanujam teaches at least one course. 1. {s.rollNo | student (s) ^ 2. (∀c)(course (c) ^ 3. ((âˆÆ't),(âˆÆ'p)( teaching(t) ^ professor(p) ^ 4. t.courseId = c.courseId ^ 5. p.name = â€Å"Ramanujam† ^ 6. p.empId = t.empId )) → 7. (âˆÆ'e) (enrollment(e) ^ 8. e.courseId = c.courseId ^ 9. e.rollNo = s.rollNo) 10. ) 11. } Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 12 Problem with unrestricted use of Negation What is the result of the query: {s.rollNo |  ¬ student(s)} ? Infinite answers !! Unsafe TRC expression : Any expression whose result uses â€Å"constants / values† that do not appear in the instances of any of the database relations. Unsafe expressions are to be avoided while specifying TRC queries. Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM. 13 Expressive power of TRC and Relational Algebra It can be shown that both Tuple Relational Calculus and Relational Algebra have the same expressive power A query can be formulated in (safe) TRC if and only if it can be formulated in RA Both can not be used to formulate queries involving transitive closure — find all direct or indirect pre-requisites of a course — find all subordinates of a specific employee etc. Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar, Department of CS&E, IITM.

Adrienne Rich Feminist and Political Poet

Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 - March 27, 2012) was an award-winning poet, longtime American feminist, and prominent lesbian. She wrote more than a dozen volumes of poetry and several non-fiction books. Her poems have been widely published in anthologies and studied in literature and womens studies courses. She received major prizes, fellowships, and international recognition for her work. Fast Facts: Adrienne Rich Known For: American poet, essayist and feminist credited with bringing the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.Born: May 16, 1929, in  Baltimore, MDDied: March 27, 2012, in Santa Cruz, CAEducation: Radcliffe CollegePublished Works: A Change of World, Diving Into the Wreck, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law, Blood, Bread, and Poetry, numerous nonfiction books and poems.Awards and Honors: National Book Award  (1974), Bollingen Prize  (2003), Griffin Poetry Prize  (2010)Spouse(s): Alfred Haskell Conrad  (1953-1970); Partner Michelle Cliff  (1976-2012)Children:  Pablo Conrad,  David Conrad,  Jacob ConradNotable Quote: When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her. Early Life Adrienne Rich was born May 16, 1929, in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied at Radcliffe College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1951. That year her first book, A Change of World, was selected by W.H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. As her poetry developed over the next two decades, she began writing more free verse, and her work became more political. Adrienne Rich married Alfred Conrad in 1953. They lived in Massachusetts and New York and had three children. The couple separated and Conrad committed suicide in 1970. Adrienne Rich later came out as a lesbian. She began living with her partner, Michelle Cliff, in 1976. They moved to California during the 1980s. Political Poetry In her book What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics, Adrienne Rich wrote that poetry begins with the crossing of the trajectories of elements that might not otherwise have known simultaneity. Adrienne Rich was for many years an activist on behalf of women and feminism, against the Vietnam War, and for gay rights, among other political causes. Although the United States tends to question or reject political poetry, she pointed out that many other cultures view poets a necessary, legitimate part of the national discourse. She said that she would be an activist for the long haul. Womens Liberation Movement Adrienne Richs poetry has been seen as feminist since the publication of her book Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law in 1963. She called womens liberation a democratizing force. However, she also said that the 1980s and 1990s revealed more ways in which U.S. society is a male-dominated system, far from having solved the problem of womens liberation. Adrienne Rich encouraged the use of the term womens liberation because the word feminist could easily become a mere label, or it could cause resistance in the next generation of women. Rich went back to using womens liberation because it brings up the serious question: liberation from what? Adrienne Rich praised the consciousness-raising of early feminism. Not only did consciousness-raising bring issues to the forefront of womens minds, but doing so led to action. Prize Winner Adrienne Rich won the National Book Award in 1974 for Diving Into the Wreck. She refused to accept the award individually, instead sharing it with fellow nominees Audre Lorde and Alice Walker. They accepted it on behalf of all women everywhere who are silenced by a patriarchal society. In 1997, Adrienne Rich refused the National Medal for the Arts, stating that the very idea of art as she knew it was incompatible with the cynical politics of the Bill Clinton Administration. Adrienne Rich was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She also won numerous other awards, including the National Book Foundations Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Book Critics Circle Award for The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004, the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Wallace Stevens Award, which recognizes outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. Adrienne Rich Quotes †¢ Life on the planet is born of woman. †¢ Todays womenBorn yesterdayDealing with tomorrowNot yet where were goingBut not still where we were. †¢ Women have been the truly active people in all cultures, without whom human society would long ago have perished, though our activity has most often been on the behalf of men and children. †¢ I am a feminist because I feel endangered, psychically and physically, by this society and because I believe that the womens movement is saying that we have come to an edge of history when men - insofar as they are embodiments of the patriarchal idea - have become dangerous to children and other living things, themselves included. †¢ The most notable fact our culture imprints on women is the sense of our limits. The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate and expand her sense of actual possibilities. †¢ But to be a female human being trying to fulfill traditional female functions in a traditional way is in direct conflict with the subversive function of the imagination. †¢ Until we know the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves. †¢ When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her. †¢ Lying is done with words and also with silence. †¢ False history gets made all day, any day,the truth of the new is never on the news †¢ If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up. †¢ There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep and still be counted as warriors. †¢ The woman I needed to call my mother was silenced before I was born. †¢ The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown. †¢ Much male fear of feminism is the fear that, in becoming whole human beings, women will cease to mother men, to provide the breast, the lullaby, the continuous attention associated by the infant with the mother. Much male fear of feminism is infantilism -- the longing to remain the mothers son, to possess a woman who exists purely for him. †¢ How we dwelt in two worlds the daughters and the mothers in the kingdom of the sons. †¢ No woman is really an insider in the institutions fathered by masculine consciousness. When we allow ourselves to believe we are, we lose touch with parts of ourselves defined as unacceptable by that consciousness; with the vital toughness and visionary strength of the angry grandmothers, the shamanesses, the fierce marketwomen of the Ibos Womens War, the marriage-resisting women silkworkers of prerevolutionary China, the millions of widows, midwives, and the women healers tortured and burned as witches for three centuries in Europe. †¢ Its exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. †¢ War is an absolute failure of imagination, scientific and political. †¢ Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, censored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else, made difficult-to-come-by, whatever is buried in the memory by the collapse of meaning under an inadequate or lying language -- this will become, not merely unspoken, but unspeakable. †¢ There are days when housework seems the only outlet. †¢ Sleeping, turning in turn like planetsrotating in their midnight meadow:a touch is enough to let us knowwere not alone in the universe, even in sleep... †¢ The moment of change is the only poem. edited by Jone Johnson Lewis