Question: In general do you guys/girls struggle writing code on paper or is that just me? If you ask me, i think i do fairly well writing code on computer but took a cmps test yesterday and failed it. is it just me that struggles writing on paper or is that a common thing?

Question

gavlois1 · Answer

Doing coding tests on paper is good way of testing a student's proficiency in the language in general, but in my opinion it serves no real world use at all. For me, who is taking a Java class right now, I use the autocomplete function in Eclipse quite a lot. I use it to check if a method is able to be called, if I have my fields right, etc.  I also personally don't do too well on paper either because I'm used to having access to autocomplete and the API.

anonymous · Answer

yeah i dont use any autocomplete functions or anything, i just idk i just do better for some reason. I mean i get what the point is because on a computer you can test your answer and get the correct answer through trial and error but i just think its stupid. If i fail this class because i cant write code on paper...thats ridiculous. I've got 100s on all my assignments and labs and a 51 on test ruining my grade.

anonymous · Answer

or even below an A, i could easily make an A without these tests..

gavlois1 · Answer

If your teacher is grading hand written code as harshly as they are grading assignments, then that's something they really shouldn't be doing. What our professor did was she'd let slide missing semi colons here and there, us mistaking a method name for another that's similar, etc. As long as we get the general flow of the program right, our loop counters aren't off by one, etc, we get near full marks. Maybe you should bring it up with your instructor.

anonymous · Answer

yeah ill def need to speak with her because after the test, i had my computer in my backpack, immediately went and typed int the 'programs' i wrote and i mean there were a few tiny mistakes liek the ones you mentioned and she would take off full points for the problem and the programs even still ran, they just werent flawless..like come on, thats insane.

anonymous · Answer

but alright, ill have to speak with her, thanks for the talk gav! im off to class