N2EY wrote:
In article , Mike Coslo writes:


I question how the question pool is so much worse of a learning tool
than say a book.


Depends what you mean by "better" and "worse", Mike.


Well, I say they are a *functional* equivalent. Some don't like them
because the question pool has the exact answer desired, and knowing the
exact answer desired means that someone can just give that answer and be
done. But if the answer is in a text, then we can read the text and get
the exact answer too.

Here's something to try.

Let us take a website:

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/reg/7/millen...scientist.html

This is IEEE's write-up on Reginald Fessenden.

Let's take a situation where there is a question on the first date of
transmitted sound.

Quoting from the page:


Professor Kintner, who was working for Fessenden at that time,
designed an interrupter to give 10,000 breaks a second, and this
interrupter was built by Brashear, an optician. The interrupter was
delivered in January or February 1900, but experiments were not
conducted until the fall of that year. To modulate his transmitter,
he inserted a carbon microphone directly in series with the antenna
lead. After many unsuccessful tries, transmission of speech over a
distance of 1.5 km was finally achieved on 23 December 1900, between
15-metre masts located at Cobb Island, Maryland.

A couple paragraphs later....


Fessenden's greatest radio communications successes happened in 1906.
On 10 January, two-way transatlantic telegraphic communication
was achieved -- another first – between Brant Rock, Massachusetts,
and Macrihanish, Scotland. James C. Armor, Fessenden's chief assistant,
was the operator at Macrihanish, and Fessenden himself was the operator
at Brant Rock.

End quote


OK.


There are some questions that may be easily taken from these paragraphs.

When was the date of the first successful voice transmission?

A. July 15, 1905

B. December 1, 1899

C. December 23, 1900

D. January 10, 1906

Some place you can look up the answer = C

What was the distance of the first transmission?

A. 1.5 Kilometers

B. 1.5 miles

C. Transatlantic

D. 5 meters

Some place you can look up the answer = A

Okay. So which is the superior method?

Depends what you mean by "superior".

Right, but I consider them functional equivalents, so the superiority
of one over the other is not my concern.

If someone who knows nothing about Fessenden discovers that there are only two
Fessenden questions in the pool, he/she need only learn two simple facts
("first voice transmission date = 1900" and "first voice transmission distance
= 1.5 km = about 1 mile".

But if a question pool is not available, the person has to learn a whole lot
more because there's no telling what Fessenden questions, or how many, will be
on the test.

and if a question pool is available, the student has to go over the
entire question pool to learn the few questions that are asked.


If I were to voice my preferences, I would just as soon read a nice
story about Mr. Fessenden than a dry question pool. But functionally the
two are identical.


Not really. Heck, I could write at least a dozen different questions from those
paragraphs.

the two questions asked were just a sample. Indeed there are a huge
number of questions that can be gathered from that text. In fact, I
would credit the author with writing an excellent piece. Interesting,
with just the right mix of human and technical interest. but I digress....


Should the answers to the question pool be some deep hidden tome, not
accessible to the public?


Nope.

The *exact questions* should be secret! But that's not going to happen any time
soon, so why get worked up over it?


I'm not terribly worked up over it, but it seems there are plenty
enough Hams that are.


As much as the two methods are pretty much the
same, I would only agree with that if no one was allowed to study *any*
reference material *at all*. Reading the two paragraphs gives you the
*exact* same answers as looking at a question pool.


Not really.

If we know the exact Q&A in this hypothetical question pool, the whole story
that started out like this:


Professor Kintner, who was working for Fessenden at that time,
designed an interrupter to give 10,000 breaks a second, and this
interrupter was built by Brashear, an optician. The interrupter was
delivered in January or February 1900, but experiments were not
conducted until the fall of that year. To modulate his transmitter,
he inserted a carbon microphone directly in series with the antenna
lead. After many unsuccessful tries, transmission of speech over a
distance of 1.5 km was finally achieved on 23 December 1900, between
15-metre masts located at Cobb Island, Maryland.

A couple paragraphs later....


Fessenden's greatest radio communications successes happened in 1906.
On 10 January, two-way transatlantic telegraphic communication
was achieved -- another first – between Brant Rock, Massachusetts,
and Macrihanish, Scotland. James C. Armor, Fessenden's chief assistant,
was the operator at Macrihanish, and Fessenden himself was the operator
at Brant Rock.

End quote


Boils down to this:


transmission of speech over a
distance of 1.5 km was finally achieved on 23 December 1900


It boils down to that for the purposes of the question pool for sure.



I'll take having to study the second over having to study the first any day.

The story is more interesting than the question pool. but the test
process isn't designed to be interesting. It is designed to check that
the prospective Ham (or whoever is taking a test for whatever subject)
has been exposed to material thought to be important.


Finally, I deliberately included this particular material and this
specific question because of a current disagreement between to members
of the group.


Do you see Len admitting he's wrong, even when IEEE says so?

Not directly. But I don't expect a "Wow, was I wrong" In fact, there
are only a few people that I ever expect that from. I'm perfectly happy
to admit when I'm wrong, but I'm the oddball.

Len was wrong about the first voice transmission date. Okay, so what. I
still enjoy reading his posts. So many of them make me laugh with his
wit and puns. Dipped in acid they are, but witty nonetheless. Even when
he calls me a hockey puck or a fifth wheel on the Four Morsemen of the
Apocalypse - man, that's funny stuff!

- Mike KB3EIA -