The following is an e-mail from a student and my reply.
The student asks that Moed-B will be easier than Moed-A.
The bottom line of my reply is that Moed-B *should* be
(and always sought to be) of the same difficulty as Moed-A.
The fact that no two exams are of the same difficulty,
is an artifact of reality - the world is not perfect (I hope you noticed ;-).
As I once saw
	"In theory, theory and practice are the same
	 - in practice, they are not."


From yechiel Wed Feb 28 21:25:00 2001
Subject: Re: A request about MOED "B"
To: (a student)

Shalom,

I'll reply to your e-mail as seriously as I can,
but more than that - as frankly as I can:

> Hello.
> 
>  I'm one of the students in your course and I what to address you,
> being the lecturer in charge of the course with a request. Unfortunately,
> I've failed in MOED "A". THe exam in MOED "A" was a difficult one 
> as it's clearly seen from the low average and high rate of failures.

You jump into conclusion without any evidence.
Have you consider the possibility that there were *many* students,
registered to this course, that just do not fit its level?
Do you think that the fact that the Technion allows any student to register
to this course means that the Technion guarantees them to pass ?

> I understand why MOED "A" was made difficult, it's to track down the
> "STUDENTIM MIZ'TAINIM" and I'm sure that you have succeded in your goal. 

This is a delusion. This was *not* my goal, neither was it *anyone's* goal,
and I do not know where in the world you got this weird idea.
You should be *very* careful here, because you are walking
on the border of libelling your lecturers.

>  But MOED "B" exists mainly for those who want to better their grade 
> and for those who've failed (like myself) and there's no need to 

Since all students want to improve their grades, it means that
*all* students should take Moed-B (including excellent) ?
In that case, why bother and come to Moed-A at all ?
By the way, no one thinks that Moed-B exists
for students who want to *lower* their grade,
so your sentence is vacuous in contents.

> make the MOED "B" exam harder that the MOED "A" exam like it's usually 

You contradict yourself!  Either Moed-B is for improving grades
OR it is harder than Moed-A, but it cannot be both: "Moed-B for those
who want to [improve] ... Moed-B is harder [then] Moed-A ... usually ..."
>From your proposition, either students should not go to Moed-A
OR they should not go to Moed-B.   The fact of the matter is that
students go to either one (or both) - so either you are wrong
OR all students are dumb and you are the only smart-R.

> done with these exams. I'm sure that an easier exam would have a 
> much better rate of succes and a much higher average, and that's 
> what we all want,isn't it?

Well, I am sure too (that easier exams make higher average).  However,
if all we want is giving students higher average, why bother with Moed-B ?
We can give 100 to all at Moed-A (without even students' presence ;-).

>  A good grade in this course which is a "KDAM" to the next courses 
> in this subject(programming) would build up the self confidence of 
> the students and help them study the following courses such as MATAM.

I have more creative ideas of how to build-up students' self confidence,
especially - baseless confidence.
I am sure you can find some of them by yourself.
Above all, I find your line of argumentation amazing
- and it's an understatement (I dare say "the understatement of the year").

> Therefore, I sincerelly ask you to consider my request as seriuos 
> as possible (and please don't make fun of me, I assure you that it's 
> not funny at all) and make out of the MOED "B" exam an exam,which 
> afterwards
> the students who did it would come out with a good feeling and a 
> feeling of acomplishment.

In short, you want an exam that most (all ?) students can pass.
Why not ask me directly: let the students choose exam-problems.
I guess this will give them a sense of accomplishment,
but of a different kind.

>                    I thank you in advance

Don't mention it

>                                              A student (-)

In short, as long as it depends on me,
Moed-B is desired to be of the same difficulty as Moed-A.

Hope springs eternal
Yechiel
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