Fairness in exam

Recently there is a hooha in the primary 6 Science examination in Singapore (PSLE). Some students sob while doing the paper with ‘difficult’ questions as complained by these students and their parents. For me, there is nothing much to worry about when there is a very difficult question in the examination paper, because probably most will lose the marks for the question. Similarly, there is not much to cheer about when there is a very easy question because almost all will score the full mark for that one. Thus, I suspect that the problem lies in the attitude that they believe and expect full marks if they have put in the sufficient amount of preparation. Thus, for those who have put in more than sufficient efforts and who believe that they are entitled to full marks if there is no fault from them during the examination, they probably have felt being cheated or the situation is very unfair to them.

Should the examination system be perfect with total fairness? I prefer not. Considering the education in school as the preparation process for students to survive in society, it should not differ from the actual world too much. The real world is not fair, surely not in perfect state. Although the school should provide a protected environment for students to experiment and explore and learn, it should not be too protected and over perfected such that students will find it quite tough when they eventually have to live in the outside world.

Read the product manual

Nowadays, almost all products come with some manuals, guides, explanations on how to use the product correctly and/or how the product functions. Even though many times we don’t look at them, most of us should agree that the correct way is to read them to understand the product better so that we can get the most out of it and thus increase its worth against the price we paid.

However, ironically, many people don’t bother to or even never ever have the idea to learn more about a product (try to figure out what is it by the time you finish reading this paragraph) that everyone uses and which is being used the most compared to any other product we buy. Furthermore, this product is very expensive, or actually, it is still un-buyable. Many of its parts are not replaceable. Even if it is replaceable, the supply source for parts is very rare and limited. Yet, some people even purposely use it in a known harmful way. Sigh…

So, what is this ‘product’? Have you any answers? If you have only one answer, then you might have thought of the same ‘product’ as me. The product is body. Haven’t we been using it for the longest time, all the time? Isn’t it the most precious product that we own? Aren’t there many who purposely cause harm to it in exchange for short-term fake benefits? Sigh, sigh, sigh …

Neural networks

I just read an article about the up bringing of children. There is a discussion about the two extremes, caning and reasoning, and also some mixtures of the two. I might have mentioned before, another article I read some months back stating that it might not be so much dependent on the method, but the consistency of the rule or standard that underlines the method. For example, when on different occasions, a child acts in a particular desirable or undesirable way and he/she receive different reactions or responses from the parents, the child will be confused, find contradictions and inconsistencies.

Actually, many computer scientists and engineers should be very familiar with this phenomenon. For a number of decades, artificial neural networks (ANN) were implemented using mathematical models. On class of these ANN needs to be trained in order to perform in an acceptable way. The training effectiveness depends on the training data. If there were substantial portion of the training data has error, the ANN will probably not able to fulfill in role.

Now, we have to know that ANN is an artificial version of the neural network that scientists found in brains. I agree that brain is not the whole of a human being and therefore let alone the neural network in our brain. However, if the neural network in a child brain is fed with wrong training data by giving them different or even contradictory reactions and responses to the same behavior, then the that neural network will not be trained properly. This would result in the child behaving in a way that we label as undesirable.

So, may be some engineers and some psychiatrists should start working together for a better parental guideline in the up bringing of children.

Focus on the advantages

I think fairness exist. Or should I say relativity? Not too sure. It seems like every feature we have in us gives us some advantages and at the same time some disadvantages. In the past few days, I came across two articles that reflected the above.

First one is a study by some scientist about an already passed away artist. The research results argue that the artist had lazy eye based on the analysis of his paintings. He further hypothesizes that many other great artists could also have this problem. However, from another perspective, he indicated that this ‘problem’ could have made them great artists as it is easier for them to paint the 3D world on to a 2D plane.

Second one is a story about a Japanese boy who had lost his left arm. Despite of this, he still very much wanted to learn Judo. Later, a Judo Master accepted him as disciple. Many months passed by and he had only practiced one particular Judo skill. He once asked the Master shouldn’t he be taught of other skills? The Master told him that this one skill is enough. One day, he was sent to participate in a competition. Initially, with only one skill, he didn’t have the confidence. Still, he managed to clear the rounds and entered final. After wining many opponents who were more muscular then him, and eventually, he was the champion in the competition. On the way home, he wonders why he could win? So he asked the Master. The Master explained that the Judo skill you had mastered is very difficult to be overcome. In order to counter your skill is to grab your left arm. Thus, your missing left arm was a great advantage to you in the matches.