What Scala?

[dsimcha]

== Quote from Don (nospam at nospam.com)'s article
> Walter Bright wrote:
> > Sean Kelly wrote:
> >> I definitely would try to avoid universities where multiple-choice
> >> tests are the norm
> >> (oddly, I've heard that UC Berkeley falls into this category, and as a
> >> result it's also
> >> apparently a haven for cheaters).  I went back to finish my undergrad
> >> degree recently
> >> and despite being at a large state school the classes were all a
> >> reasonable size and
> >> the grades derived from a combination of homework and actual
> >> problem-solving
> >> quizzes and exams.  Now a prospective employer may not know or care
> >> what format
> >> your classes followed, but I'd personally put more stock in a degree
> >> that was obtained
> >> from as few multiple-choice tests as possible.
> >
> >
> > As I said before, as a matter of school policy, Caltech did not allow
> > multiple choice exams. It also, as a matter of policy, did not allow
> > homework to be part of the grade (unless the homework was the whole
> > point of the course, like a lab course). The homework could only be used
> > as a bias in case the grade was on the edge or there was some special
> > circumstance.
> >
> > In other words, the grades were based on the midterm and final. This
> > naturally made finals week very, very stressful. On the other hand, if
> > you never went to class, never did any homework, never saw the
> > professor, swooped in and aced the final, you got an A. There were some
> > that did this <g>. I was in awe.
> I managed that for one CompSci subject. It was called "System
> Structures". I have no idea what the subject was about, since I hadn't
> attended a single lecture; but I came first in the exam.
> At the same time, I got 12% for one intermediate exam in Organic
> Chemistry, which I'd been very diligent in -- I was dreadful at rote
> memorisation.

Yeah, my initial most about multiple choice exams, etc. should have mentioned that
I was primarily referring to my experience in Organic Chemistry and only a few
other classes.  I went to Rutgers, and most of the experience was good, but a few
of the large lecture classes, especially the ones with mostly multiple choice
exams, definitely weren't.  Heck, even the non-multiple choice questions in orgo
were primarily about regurgitation and rote memorization.