Difference makers

I just looked over the performance of the class as a whole on each exam question. A few things caught my eye:

1. One of the questions about the size of Δv was a tough one and was a difference maker for top scorers (81% of them got it correct) relative to low scorers (none of them got it correct).
2. Another good difference maker was a humble milepost question concerning avg. speed of a yeloow car and a red car.
3. Majority of class got the Hubble Space Telescope question correct, yet it also distinguished between top scorers (89%) and low scorers (19%).
4. The absolute biggest difference maker was the jumbled sentence about circular motion, with five terms to unscramble. All top scorers got it 100% correct! Low scorers got 34% correct.

I think it is interesting that some of the calculation questions were tough but the biggest difference maker was a VERBAL conceptual question!

I always tell my students that thinking is the hardest task I expect of them, and that is because we think with concepts. Or put it another way: physics grad students, maybe even profs, would be just as challenged by a conceptual question like our jumbled sentence about circular motion.

So never sell yourself short. Don't let anyone belittle you -- EVER. Your intellectual tasks here in PSC1121 are right up there at the top, and many of you are doing nicely with it!! How about that!!??