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Joined 2 months ago
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Cake day: September 5th, 2026

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  • (1) Bring back the exam. Even “books open”, let them refer to notes and the textbook if we don’t want to test memorization. It seems like giving them a written exam for two hours in a classroom is a ready antidote to AI slop.

    Yes, it is insane that this is something that needs to be brought back. How can you set an individual grade if you don’t the person in question is the one who did the work, completely silly.

    (2) Maybe this indicates the coursework should change? If AI is fully capable of solving the problems presented in the coursework, then that almost certainly means that in their careers they are going to be using AI to solve those problems. Meaning this is maybe a problem chasing a solution?

    If math is part of your education is it usually to introduce logical, axiomatic thinking, problem solving etc. This is learnt by studying the material and trying to solve problems. Solving problems is a proxy for acquiring and developing understanding, but usually not a means to an end themselves.

    I wouldn’t say that the exercises in the coursework are redundant because an LLM can spit out an answer to them, for all we know the model might as well (and this is usually the case in common enough courses) have been trained on the exact textbook and its solution manual. Similarly, as I said earlier, the exercises are not a means to an end, they are for the students to further their understanding.

    Imagine a a course in swimming, which was graded on a set of exercises to be performed in the water, filmed and sent to the lecturer. If students got a passing grade by sending in AI-generated videos of them doing the exercises I don’t think anyone could claim “If AI is capable of solving the problems, maybe we should change the exercises”. The obvious solution is to change the way grading is done, for example an instructor being present when a student performs the exercises.

    You wont learn to swim or ride a bike by looking at an AI generated video of the activity, you must do it over and over again, it is the exactly the same for other things.

    Regardless, the concept of grading courses like this is so foreign to me in the first place. Either they will have to increase the standard to that of other countries, or just be even more circus than it is right now. It will be interesting to see how the free market system education system tries to solve this.