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Guidelines to Answer TEAMS Part II Questions
or
The Engineering Way of Thinking
Introduction
Clearly answering open-ended questions is very different from answering a multiple choice question. In working with an open-ended question there is not necessarily only "one" right answer. Therefore, it is very important that every student properly justifies his/her answer.
Guidelines
- Please provide the answer for each sub-question separately. If you provide a single essay type answer to all the sub-questions, it might be possible that the grader misses the answer for a certain sub-question.
- Please remember that this test is supposed to evaluate your Science and Mathematics skills. So use scientific principles and/or mathematical analysis or calculations to make your point. The scientific principles and mathematical equations necessary to answer the questions are provided in the literature accompanying your questions.
- In accordance to the previous point, please make sure you have read the literature provided to you carefully and then start answering the questions.
- Please don't procrastinate from the question and do not write long answers which include information which is not pertinent to the questions answered.
- If you have been asked to calculate the value of a physical quantity, please don't write just the final answer. Show the steps that you have followed in evaluating that value because in that case, even if you are incorrect, you will receive partial credit for your effort. By writing the final answer, the grader doesn't know your line of thought if the answer is wrong and therefore you are risking every possible point.
- Please understand that partial credit will be given if you didn't get the final answer but your process of thought was logical. So, even if you don't know the answer totally, make an attempt to convey your thought.
- If there is more than one point/idea you want to make in your answer, then number them or use a bullet format.
- Keep different points/ideas on separate paragraphs. This applies even if each paragraph is one sentence long.
- Try to make your answers presentable. If you are comparing ideas, do not hesitate to build a table with several columns to demonstrate differences and similarities.
- Try to write neatly. Your hand-writing doesn't have to be perfect. Provide some space between words and lines. Try not to write too small. It is extremely difficult to read really small print.
- Leave ample space between answers to different questions. Sometimes we read papers in which it is not always clear where the 1st question ends and the 2nd begins.
- Try not to ramble on about the same point. Make a point and write a few arguments to explain it and/or support it and that should usually suffice.
- Some students do not pay close attention at exactly what the question requires. As a result serious mistakes are made and valuable points are lost. For example serious errors are made with being inconsistent with the units of quantities that were calculated. Therefore, read the question carefully and show all the work that is involved in giving your final answer.
- Use of graphs, diagrams, tables or figures to support your answers is strongly encouraged and extra care should be given in making and presenting those as neat as possible.
Conclusion
We can not emphasize enough the importance of the following point:
Make absolutely sure you write all your answers in a legible manner. The graders can only score what they can read.
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