PADI OW Final Exam Questions that are either wrong or just bad

[TooCold]

I bet if you go through the e-learning/manual/study material that you will find the precise answers for the test questions you have posted about...

True, but testing a student's level of skill for unthinking regurgitation does not test their level of knowledge and understanding of the material. To be fair, PADI does describe itself as "the world's largest diver training organization," not as an educational organization.

there were several questions with the wrong correct answer but despite my protests, the Course Directors just insisted I signed to say I understood why I got the answers wrong! Looks like not much changes!!!

I imagine every instructor routinely encounters well-prepared, thoughtful, and relatively intelligent students who make this complaint about one or more questions - at every certification level. Instead of dismissing this as just student error, an instructor could take a mental "step back" to consider whether a question could be improved, and pursue it with the training agency.

 

[tursiops]

To be fair, PADI does describe itself as "the world's largest diver training organization," not as an educational organization.

Not sure why you make this distinction. Note that PADI is run by a guy with a doctorate in education,, and it promotes the 4 E's: Education, Equipment, Entertainment, and Environment.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

God I’m so glad I took OW before all this e learning crap!
I really enjoyed the face to face interactions with all the other students and the instructor. Great stories, good laughs, good question/answer sessions, great learning!
It was so nice to have an instructor in the flesh to explain stuff and when someone had a question about “OK, what do you do if this happens?”. The instructor was right there to say “you do this” followed by a quick story that illustrated the scenario. The rest of the class was there to absorb that conversation and log it in memory.
Good times man!
So sad they’re gone.

I’m sorry, but humans are social animals and we need and thrive on physicality.
I thought the pandemic would have proved that.

 

[Centrals]

God I’m so glad I took OW before all this e learning crap!
I really enjoyed the face to face interactions with all the other students and the instructor. Great stories, good laughs, good question/answer sessions, great learning!
It was so nice to have an instructor in the flesh to explain stuff and when someone had a question about “OK, what do you do if this happens?”. The instructor was right there to say “you do this” followed by a quick story that illustrated the scenario. The rest of the class was there to absorb that conversation and log it in memory.
Good times man!
So sad they’re gone.

I’m sorry, but humans are social animals and we need and thrive on physicality.
I thought the pandemic would have proved that.

My mate and I were the only student in the OW class. All the problems were explained face to face and both of us could discuss and laugh at our mistakes afterward.
Indeed good times!

 

[Marie13]

God I’m so glad I took OW before all this e learning crap!
I really enjoyed the face to face interactions with all the other students and the instructor. Great stories, good laughs, good question/answer sessions, great learning!
It was so nice to have an instructor in the flesh to explain stuff and when someone had a question about “OK, what do you do if this happens?”. The instructor was right there to say “you do this” followed by a quick story that illustrated the scenario. The rest of the class was there to absorb that conversation and log it in memory.
Good times man!
So sad they’re gone.

I’m sorry, but humans are social animals and we need and thrive on physicality.
I thought the pandemic would have proved that.

A number of instructors have said here that when it was book/classroom only, a lot of students came to class with work undone. That doesn’t happen with the eLearning. They can focus on what students are unclear on. I love eLearning. It’s even done for tech classes. I like the immediate feedback of the quizzes you have to pass 100% on to get to the next chapter.

 

[BoltSnap]

God I’m so glad I took OW before all this e learning crap!
I really enjoyed the face to face interactions with all the other students and the instructor. Great stories, good laughs, good question/answer sessions, great learning!
It was so nice to have an instructor in the flesh to explain stuff and when someone had a question about “OK, what do you do if this happens?”. The instructor was right there to say “you do this” followed by a quick story that illustrated the scenario. The rest of the class was there to absorb that conversation and log it in memory.
Good times man!
So sad they’re gone.

I’m sorry, but humans are social animals and we need and thrive on physicality.
I thought the pandemic would have proved that.

Doing eLearning for diver training doesn't mean not doing any in-class work with the students at all, at least not in the NAUI system. I started to require my students to do and complete the online eLearning work including all of the online quizzes and final exam (they must score 100% in these evaluations) before coming to the real class. I still do in-person lectures with the students but at a faster pace and I get to ask the students many more questions to gauge their true understanding of the material. I still cover the "science/medicine/decompression/tables" part of the course in depth in class however. I add more material than what is covered in the eLearning program in addition to local knowledge and details.

I find that doing the entire eLearning with the associated quizzes and exam prior to the in class work makes the students understand and retain the information better and forces them to read the entire book and understand it. The students are still required to do the in-class paper final test. The students scores in the in-class exams became in the 90%+ range after doing the eLearning, much better than before I started requiring the eLearning.

I can't imagine that eLearning would totally replace the in-person class at all, it only augments it and increase the students' learning and understanding of the material while being much more efficient in class.

 

[TooCold]

Not sure why you make this distinction. Note that PADI is run by a guy with a doctorate in education,, and it promotes the 4 E's: Education, Equipment, Entertainment, and Environment.

Concerning the (original) subject of this thread - whether PADI written exam items could stand improvement - I don't hold a for-profit commercial enterprise that styles itself a training agency to the same evaluation criteria or standards as I do an educational institution.

As I said, I made the distinction just to be fair. Literally.

 

[tursiops]

Concerning the (original) subject of this thread - whether PADI written exam items could stand improvement - I don't hold a for-profit commercial enterprise that styles itself a training agency to the same evaluation criteria or standards as I do an educational institution.

As I said, I made the distinction just to be fair. Literally.

There are for-profit educational institutions.

 

[inquis]

God I’m so glad I took OW before all this e learning crap!

I did that as well, but also have done subsequent instruction via e-learning. Book or e-learning, I find little difference. Although I LOVE being able to search for something I know is SOMEWHERE in the material.

A good instructor will add to the electronic (or paper) material, either through additional detail or stories that will drive home lessons. Truly gifted ones make you feel like you were in their shoes and learn what they learned once-upon-a-time.

 

[gamon]

Another question came up on the Enriched Air Final Exam that I consider to be either worded poorly or the “correct” answer was not the best one.

Again please excuse my non-exact paraphrasing but it was along the lines of “After analyzing your EANx cylinder the next thing you do is___________?

My choice was to determine the maximum depth of the blend.

The supposedly correct answer was to compare the results with what is written on the sticker on the cylinder.