Re:The CIA uses board games to train officers
by rodionos on Saturday March 18, 2017 @10:10PM
(#13904763)
I recall going on a 3-day course to a marine officer training camp somewhere in VA. There was a obstacle course which was hard, i.e. you had to swim in cold muddy waters (October time), climb fences, dig trenches etc. 80% of teams finished within the deadline of 4 hours. And then there was a exercise room which the Marine instructors said was designed by CIA. You're locked into a room with some instruments and are given an assignment to be completed under a deadline. The outcome was binary: yes/no. Success rate was like 10%. The odds were so that they can identify the best decile.
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Re:The CIA uses board games to train officers
by shoo on Saturday March 18, 2017 @10:44PM
(#13904855)
i heard something similar about designing questions for maths exams -- about half the questions should be pretty basic, so students who have studied and have a basic grasp of the concepts should be able to get them right and pass the course. then the rest are harder, with e.g. one or two questions being more difficult extensions of what was covered in the course.
it sounds like the structure of the marine officer training camp avoids the problems some students have with poor "exam technique" - if you are given a fixed block of time to use to attempt all tasks (e.g. the obstacle course, the exercise room) then there is the risk of students spending all their time on the hardest task, and not leaving enough time to succeed at the other easier tasks.
edit: on another hand, you could argue that "a student's poor exam technique" could equally well be called "poorly designed exam / measurement process"