It’s reasonable to assume that this assignment wasn’t specifically on fractions, based on the meme itself; the rage only makes sense in a world where they weren’t instructed to present their answers in a particular format.
Online assessments can be pretty jarring because for paper assessments marked by a teacher, you’re usually fine to present whatever format is most convenient. The exceptions include: if the question asked for you for a specific format; if you gave a rounded answer where it wasn’t appropriate (e.g. giving the answer “1.57 (3s.f.)” instead of “π/2”); or rounding an answer to the wrong level, or not being clear about what level of rounding you’ve done.
Whilst it is possible that the online assessment specified what format answers should be in, I’ve seen plenty of assessments where it doesn’t make that clear, and then is overly rigid in what it accepts. I’ve even seen assessments where I go “okay, I guess I shouldn’t give my answer as a decimal”, and then I give a fraction for the next answer, only to be told that the correct answer is what I said, but in decimal form. It would be logical that if in doubt, one should present answers in the same format as what the question itself uses, even if the question doesn’t specify you should use a particular format. Unfortunately, even this is not a safe strategy. I cannot emphasise enough how shitty the Pearson online assessments are, and I am baffled at how they are able to continue existing when they’re effectively scamming maths departments into paying for this trash.
Calculators can make decimal easy and fractions hard when doing it yourself fractions are much easier it’s an anti-cheat of sorts
Edit: I’m getting a lot of flak for something explicitly stated in a text book, yeah some calculators can but they are less common especially in grade school and it could just be a carry over from time’s when calculators couldn’t, my point is that this isn’t some random theory it’s a real thing real text books have done.
That’s absolutely stupid if you’re talking about a number that can be represented exactly in both notations.
Unless the course or assignment is specifically about fractions.
At least I was thought to use the same format for results as the assignment.
It’s reasonable to assume that this assignment wasn’t specifically on fractions, based on the meme itself; the rage only makes sense in a world where they weren’t instructed to present their answers in a particular format.
Online assessments can be pretty jarring because for paper assessments marked by a teacher, you’re usually fine to present whatever format is most convenient. The exceptions include: if the question asked for you for a specific format; if you gave a rounded answer where it wasn’t appropriate (e.g. giving the answer “1.57 (3s.f.)” instead of “π/2”); or rounding an answer to the wrong level, or not being clear about what level of rounding you’ve done.
Whilst it is possible that the online assessment specified what format answers should be in, I’ve seen plenty of assessments where it doesn’t make that clear, and then is overly rigid in what it accepts. I’ve even seen assessments where I go “okay, I guess I shouldn’t give my answer as a decimal”, and then I give a fraction for the next answer, only to be told that the correct answer is what I said, but in decimal form. It would be logical that if in doubt, one should present answers in the same format as what the question itself uses, even if the question doesn’t specify you should use a particular format. Unfortunately, even this is not a safe strategy. I cannot emphasise enough how shitty the Pearson online assessments are, and I am baffled at how they are able to continue existing when they’re effectively scamming maths departments into paying for this trash.
Calculators can make decimal easy and fractions hard when doing it yourself fractions are much easier it’s an anti-cheat of sorts
Edit: I’m getting a lot of flak for something explicitly stated in a text book, yeah some calculators can but they are less common especially in grade school and it could just be a carry over from time’s when calculators couldn’t, my point is that this isn’t some random theory it’s a real thing real text books have done.
Yeah… because you cant just calculate the decimal from fractions with a calculator…