[blueerica]

I'm so pissed off right now. Ugh!

On my mass marketing midterm, a number of questions were poorly worded. Students have had problems and are contesting them, and the teacher is hearing none of it. We need to find that her answer is wrong from the book. The problem is that it's not the answer that's necessarily wrong, but the phrasing of the question.

The question I am finding a beef with is (something to the effect of):

"Lung cancer as a result of smoking is an externality. True or False?"

I answered false since, in the book, an externality is a social cost of an action. A social cost would be lung cancer as a result of second hand smoke. In my estimation lung cancer as the result of being a smoker is not a social cost, but a personal cost as a result of a choice someone makes.

Now, I don't even need to get the points for the question. It's really just 2 points, which in the long haul means jack squat to me. What I want her to do is to better word the question so that it is more clear. Say second hand smoke - then it's a real externality, not a trick question.

What's getting my goad is that anyone that has gone up to her asking for help or an explanation is met with "Don't talk to me." while she says we need to find it in the book. Such horse manure! The questions were open book and she says she's surprised that so few people got As. Well, no wonder when your questions are written so F-ed up.

GAdjfklasjk!!!!!!!!!!!!