Slice of Life #20 - Overthinking Things

March 20th, 2013

As children, the people in my district were trained in school to pick the "best answer". As long as we could adequately defend our answer, we were right. This increased logic and problem solving for the kid, who often strained his mind to find an answer that logically fit the question. At the same time, I think it's turned all the Marlboro honors kids into the kids who overthink all the time (a lot of High Tech kids in general are like this). At Marlboro, we didn't really prepare for standardized testing much in middle school, so we weren't the best at taking them; we were a lot better at taking insanely hard science tests instead. :D This may or may not explain why I always get hundreds on hard tests, but get terrible grades on the extremely easy ones. On the easy ones, I don't trust myself, and go back to check the test and change some of my answers into the wrong ones.

My reading teacher used to tell us, "When you take the NJASK, please don't be dumbed down by the questions. The questions were not designed for you. Also, please, please, please DON'T OVERTHINK." Well, she told us the same thing right before our reading midtern. While there were kids in the school in average reading who got awesome grades, almost everyone in honors reading failed. Why? We overthought almost every single question. To us, all the answers of a multiple choice question were right. Sometimes, being in honors has its downfalls.

Now, since we've come to High Tech, the issue has expanded, at least for me. On history tests, I frequently get things wrong just because I convinced myself that TECHNICALLY, one of the wrong answers was right. I tell myself that why, WHY in the world, would a teacher make a problem so easy? This must be a trick question. Usually, I succeed in proving the original right answer wrong, and pick the wrong one. Then I get the question wrong. It turns out the teacher wanted to make the question easy. On these occasions I get quite frustrated.

Even MATH started to have more ambiguous answers. Math, which had always been the one subject that had certain, cut out answers. Even since we started chapter 6's experimental/observational study statistics, I always mix up the two. Math has started to integrate more and more logic and reading skills. For example, on the test we got back today, the question was:
Randomization is a key element of well-defined studies. Which best describes how randomization applies to a sample survey?
I was debating between:
A) A random sample is surveyed from the population studied
B) As possible, random samples can be selected from the groups being studied
At first, I chose A, the obvious answer. However, since I finished the test in 20 minutes I went back to check, and I ended up spending the rest of the test debating between A and B. I finally changed my answer to B.

My logic:
 - the question asks how randomization applies to a sample survey
 - sample surveys can include convenience, self select, systematic, and random samples.
 - therefore, there are some types (convenience, self select, and systematic) that DON'T use randomization
 - so the answer can't be so absolute. A must be wrong because it doesn't apply to convenience, self select, or systematic sample surveys.
 - B allows convenience, self select, or systematic surveys while also allowing random surveys

So apparently I overthought the question...when I tried to tell Dr. Eng how I did it:
Me: "...<everything I just said up there^^>..."
Dr. Eng: "...what?" <proceeds to explain again>
Me: "Butbutbut"
Dr. Eng: "You were the only person who put B." <Dr. Eng laugh>
Nick: "Ohhhh Vivian is a REBEL!"
Me: "Yes I am very special."
Dr. Eng: "I think you overthought the question."
Me: "Yeah, alright. Maybe I did....a little..."

Anywayssss that's what happens when I finish too early. xD

^This is so, so, so true...