Bartosz about Chapel

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Walter Bright" <newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message 
news:j9mjc8$2rln$1 at digitalmars.com...
> On 11/12/2011 9:15 AM, bcs wrote:
>> The/a solution to the cheating problem at anything but the last set of 
>> classes
>> is to make the next set of classes *painful* to take if you don't know 
>> the
>> materiel from the prerequisite. The point of the class after all is to 
>> teach you
>> the materiel (whatever that amounts to) and if you've got the materiel 
>> how you
>> got there is irrelevant. That all depends however on a carefully tuned
>> definition of "got the materiel".
>
> Caltech also had a policy that you could not only place out of any class 
> by taking (and passing) the final exam for it, you would even receive 
> *credit* for it. I've seen many that did the former, but none other that 
> went as far as the latter.
>
> However, very, very few students ever managed to pass those exams without 
> taking the class :-) I never even bothered to try.

That's one of the main reasons I lost all respect for schools. With Caltech 
apparently being the one exception, schools never care whether or not you 
know the material (despite what they've convinced themselves). What they 
care about is 1. whether you're shelling out those tuition $Gs, and 2. 
whether you actually went through the class (and played "simon says" all the 
way through).

At all the schools I've been to that allowed testing out:

1. Like you said, they gave no credit.

2. They went to great lengths to prevent you from even *trying* to test out. 
They *officially* allowed testing out, but realistically they never 
*actually* granted permission to try. What they would do is hem and haw and 
try to talk you out of it until you hopefully gave up and went away, and if 
that didn't work, they would just outright deny the opportunity (or come up 
with some obscure rule to hide behind). What make it all the more 
infuriating, and patronizing, is that they would insist they were doing it 
all in the name of "helping" you.

3. Most of the teachers were so bad at what they were doing, and at writing 
good tests, that even if you did luck out and manage to get the opportunity 
to try, there would be a very good chance that even an expert in the field 
wouldn't be able to pass without knowing all the irrelevant details and 
idiosyncrasies of *exactly* how the instructor presented the material.