Correct answer to a multiple choice question

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My daughter had a sonnet test in Honors 11th grade English a couple of weeks ago. Today they got the test back (teacher is a SLOW grader) and there was a great deal of discussion on one of the 5 point multiple choice questions. The students had read “Death Be Not Proud” in class, it was not re-printed on the quiz but there was a question about it. I’m curious to see how the educated folk here at CC answer this question, so I will give you both the sonnet and the question. Give me your answers, then after I have a bunch of answers I’ll tell you what the teacher said.</p>

<p>"Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou thinkst thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou are slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms, can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.</p>

<p>The main idea of “Death Be Not Proud” is that
a) Everyone dies
b) The speaker is not afraid to die
c) Death is a slave to fate
d) The soul is immortal.</p>

<p>Go ahead CCer’s, give me your best choice for the correct answer!</p>

2

<p>Goodness. I would choose b, c, and d. But if I had to choose one, I would probably go with d.</p>

<p>But if it were a short answer question, rather than multiple choice, I would probably say the main point is that death’s power is temporary.</p>

3

<p>I’d guess d.</p>

4

<p>I go with d, as well.</p>

5

<p>Oooh I love this.</p>

<p>d</p>

6

<p>Based on the last two lines, I’d also go with D.</p>

7

<p>Count me among those choosing D.</p>

8

<p>I would be stuck between B and D…</p>

9

<p>I’d go with D too…</p>

10

<p>I think D is probably the credited response, but B is an accurate answer.</p>

11

<p>having to choose, I’d go with D, but what a sickening way to assess the understanding of great literature. I say to this question; yuccchhh!</p>

12

<p>D, but I shudder to think what the “real” answer was.</p>

13

<p>And the correct answer is…</p>

<p>If you want to take the quiz, skip this post quickly and then come back to it…</p>

<p>According to the teacher, the correct answer is C. The story gets better. A fair number of kids in the class had chosen C, because they remembered the line about fate and did not have the sonnet in front of them, but the majority of the class had chosen D. The kids argued that both answers were correct. After a long discussion, the teacher finally announced that everyone would get an extra 2 points for this question. Now remember, it was a 5 point question. So my daughter, who had chosen D as her answer, will get 2 points for the question, and the kids who picked C will get 7 points. Looked at another way, the kids who picked D lost 3 points out of 5, and the kids who picked C get 2 bonus points. Does this make any sense to anyone?</p>

<p>BTW, college student S also chose D as the “best” answer, although he felt all four answers could be correct. Personally, I think the best answer is clearly D, with B in second place. Or maybe the teacher should have just come up with a better set of choices for answers!</p>

14

<p>Whatever. I’ve got a PhD and I got it wrong so your daughter shouldn’t feel too bad! ;-)</p>

<p>I’d probably be a ‘difficult’ student, cross out all the answers and write in “Literature is a subjective and not a quantitative subject so please stop asking us such silly multiple choice questions.” ;-)</p>

15

<p>It’s an interesting debate between B and D. B suggests an attitude of the writer that is implicit within the poem, while D is an expressed concept, so I’d have answered D. I did go back to see if the word “soul” was actually used, and when it was, I settled on D.</p>

<p>I’d argue that the answer that is surely wrong is “C” (teacher’s favorite). The testing question asked for the “main idea.” C is clearly a sub-idea. Even within the phrase where it appears, it’s only one of 4 examples given for a single idea.</p>

<p>C is an idea, but not the main idea, akin to answering the question, “What are you wearing today?” by saying, “a pink ribbon in my hair.”</p>

16

<p>C is a surface level answer to the question. My impression had been that it was included in order to snare readers who just skimmed for similar wording without looking at deeper meaning.</p>

<p>This is truly distressing. File under “Why student hate literature classes.”</p>

<p>Big sigh.</p>

17

<p>The <em>best</em> answer is D. The teacher seems pretty clueless. This is why my kids detest lit classes. They don’t mind the reading, they don’t mind thinking deeply … they just disagree often with the teacher’s analysis & they get sick of having to agree with the teacher in order to get a good grade. D had a wonderful teacher once who actually allowed the students to analyze passages in their own way … as long as they supported their analysis properly & used quotes from the text properly as evidence. What a concept.</p>

18

<p>^which is what they will universally be expected to do in college, of course.</p>

<p>BTW, in my post above, that should be “why students hate” not why student hate." </p>

<p>Sure, I teach English…</p>

19

<p>What a dreadful test. I’d have gone with “d”, and I appreciate your frustration that the teacher just gave extra credit for her favorite answer.</p>

20

<p>Wow. “d” and “b” are clearly better answers than “c.”</p>

<p>So I give the teacher an “f.”</p>