Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Friday, July 20, 2012

Where's the dunce cap?

As I mentioned yesterday, there was an entrance exam to go through. I didn't really get any kind of information beforehand as to what I could expect, besides that it was a mix of multiple choice and essay questions. So after the interview, they left me in the room with the test and said "You have 45 minutes".  I asked "Where should I go if I finish before time is up?" and they basically said "Bwahaha" and walked out.

I started flipping through the test.  The first question was "Will managing people be easier tomorrow than it is today?" Answer in ten lines.

Since the French have a very specific way to answer essay questions like this, I decided to skip that one and come back to it later.

Next page: "Which of these five cities are cities in Iraq?"
1. gobbledygook
2. gobbledygook
3. Baghdad
4. gobbledygook
5. gobbledygook

Hmm...okay, let's jump ahead some more.

If f(x) = │(x² – 50)│, what is the value of f(-5) ?
A. 75
B. 25
C. 0
D. -25
E. -75

Okay, yeah....moving on.

What is the average (arithmetic mean) of all the multiples of ten from 10 to 190 inclusive ?
A. 90
B. 95
C. 100
D. 105
E. 110

Next please!

I have a Tiger, a Lion, a Bunny, a Sheep, a carrot and a cabbage. The bunny and the sheep will eat the cabbage or the carrot, the lion and the tiger will eat the bunny or the sheep, and the lion will fight the tiger. If I have cages that can fit 2 animals/vegetables each, what’s the minimum number of cages I need to fit all of these without any fighting going on?



3: lion and tiger, sheep and cabbage, bunny and carrot

4: lion, tiger, sheep and bunny, cabbage and carrot

3:lion and carrot, tiger and cabbage, sheep and bunny

3: lion and tiger, sheep and bunny, cabbage and carrot
Crap, these aren't getting any easier, I better just go back and start at the beginning.

I also didn't dare use my iphone calculator in case they were secretly watching, but seriously folks, when the last time you did long division and multiplication by hand??  It took me a few minutes to get back into it.  Luckily I had stuck some scratch paper in my purse at the last minute, so I was able to at least do all of my scribbling there rather than on the test.  Especially since the French have a different way of multiplying and dividing than we do, so I probably would have lost points had they seen my work, even if the answer was correct (this has actually happened to foreign students before).

Which brings to mind another dilemma I had - if I wasn't 100% sure about an answer, should I give my best guess or leave it blank?  You see, some French tests knock off points for wrong answers....but there were no instructions on this test, so I no way to tell and I didn't want to leave half of them blank either. In the end, I just decided to go ahead and answer them all to the best of my ability, hoping that there would be a balance in them being impressed enough by me finishing the test (take that Mr Bwahaha) and the amount of wrong answers. I guess I must have done okay since I got accepted, but too bad they don't share the scores, I would love to know how on Earth I did...

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8 Comments:

Blogger Sarah said...

Good grief, I would have fainted at the sight of those x's! Algebra was always gobbledygook to me.

July 20, 2012 at 11:50 AM  
Blogger Anon said...

I too would have fainted but you prevailed.
Good for you, quite an accomplishment!
Linda

July 20, 2012 at 3:44 PM  
Blogger Megan said...

Hmm, I think I got them all. Good luck!

July 20, 2012 at 6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG, but then again not unexpected from the dear France.

I guess the others did worse than you in any case! the test probably cracked them! I'd have cried or burst into uncrollable laugher. Or both. Congrats mille fois!

(and you've made me curious now, how do the french multiply and divise? I must ask my BILs...they are both maths teachers)

July 20, 2012 at 7:17 PM  
Blogger Canedolia said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

July 21, 2012 at 5:53 PM  
Blogger Canedolia said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

July 21, 2012 at 6:01 PM  
Blogger julia said...

did you end with a big smiley face?

PS is the answer to No 1. 42?

July 22, 2012 at 4:14 PM  
Blogger Ksam said...

@Emmy - I'm not sure I can explain what they do differently - but I know several American students who have been marked off for doing their calculations the "wrong" way, even though they had the right final answer!

July 25, 2012 at 3:53 PM  

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