Project: Magic 8 Ball requirements unclear

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Emily

December 08, 2017 21:29

Hi,

I've noticed while doing project evaluations that the requirements for this project seem to confuse many and possibly even a majority of users. I have had to mark many otherwise excellent projects as 'needs more work' only because the if statements check whether the 'answer' variable is greater than or less than a certain number instead of exactly equal to it. The requirements (shown when doing the evaluation) specify that the if statements must check for exact equality. However, the guidelines the user sees when actually doing the project are not that specific; they only say to check whether the answer "is" a certain number (no mention of "exact equality").

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this being an issue and if there were any plans to clarify this requirement under the project description, or else make it less strict and also accept > and <?

Thanks!

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2 comments

Evan Lewis

December 10, 2017 15:42
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Hi Emily,

I too have noticed several students that have struggled with that project, whether they didn't understand the concepts or the directions.

Currently, the requirements to pass are that they use "===" in their if statements.

You can find more information about evaluating projects here: https://www.khanacademy.org/computer-programming/doing-great-cs-project-evaluations-intro-to-js/6643714399862784

Let me know if you have any further questions!
Jonathan Pollnow

January 18, 2020 22:34
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I have evaluated dozens of magic 8 balls and besides apparent ambiguity in terms of how students interpret how they should be checking answer with their logic, there also seems to be a misunderstanding of not only how random(1,5) generates numbers, but also how floor reduces these generated numbers back down to integers. I remember struggling with understanding it while I worked on the project myself. I have come to the conclusion that the tutorial glosses very casually over what random(1,5) and floor does, as if assuming that it is obvious, when it is not. Random(1,5) is counterintuitive / deceptive on its own, and probably needs better treatment in the tutorial. A much later tutorial actually explains it better, but long after it would have mattered.

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Project: Magic 8 Ball requirements unclear

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