Multiple choice

Our semester test took place on Tuesday afternoon.  The original venue was double booked for an ANCYL rally.  Our class stood outside for a while, soaking up the spectacle.  Politics trumping education.  And running with the analogy, we soon found somewhere else to go and work.

Multiple choice questions are devious instruments.  At once rewarding the lazy and punishing the partially informed.  For the loafer they offer a wildcard entry into certified intelligence, while everyone who took some time to study is faced with having your partial understanding of a topic reduced to a stark '...i do, or don't..." understand this.

And then there's the mysterious MCQ paper marking machine; have you ever actually seen it?  And can you use a pen or not?  And why is the paper red?  It's like a warning "Beware, this will not be a true reflection of your intelligence... but it will be easy to mark, see you next year!"

Edit: Just this this article in the Dispatch http://www.dispatch.co.za/news/article/2183