DirectX Exam

Well exams have kicked off, and I am pleased with the result of my DirectX exam. Partially because I’m pretty sure I obtained an A, and secondly, because my DX professor’s exams are humorous. I think all school exams would be much more effective if they kept you in a relaxed frame of mind while you were taking them. Nothing relaxes a person like laughter and snickering. Our professor entered the room this morning with an announcement of a “pop quiz.” even though we had been reviewing for this final for some time now. The exam started out with all 80 people in the DirectX room doing the wave while making noises for 1 point of extra credit as long as everyone made a noise, and the wave went across the room and made it back. Then, once the exam started, every multiple choice question had 5 or more choices, but the 5th or 6th choice on the exams were not your typical answers.. Here are a few examples from previous tests:

Question concerning attenuation in DirectX lighting: “e. It doesn’t do anything. DirectX is stupid and anybody that teaches a class in DirectX is an absolute idiot.”

Question concerning capturing mouse states: “e. Your mouse is broken. Pick it up and stare into the laser underneath it to see if you can figure out what is wrong.”

Question about camera rotations: “e. My camera is not an ambiturner. It can only turn left.”

Question about the ControlPan member of the BufferDescription class: “e. Allows you full control of both frying pans and sauce pans. Both types of pans can be used to create different types of sauces used in numerous tasty and fulfilling goodies.”

A choice on a vertexbuffer question: Chuck norris was annoyed with the verticies and kicked them with infinite velocity.

So although the jokes were a little senseless, the material covered was fairly intensive and complicated, and it was nice to chuckle while completing the exam. I’m definitely looking forward to another class with this professor. Learning is even more fun when you have people with a sense of humor. It is nice to get away from the abundance of people around that take things a little too seriously.