Quiz 2 feedback - L1

March 3, 2019

The quiz was done well by the students. The mean score was 5.08 in L1. 8
students achieved between 6 and 7 whereas 10 students scored 5. The rest
of the respondents scored between 3 and 4. The following figure shows the
distribution. 24 students attempted the quiz

The following figure shows the choices selected by the respondents

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1. Question 1 was testing students knowledge of subspaces. Every 2x2
diagonal matrix is a subspace of 2x2 matrices, every multiple of the
identity matrix also forms a subspace of 2x2 matrices. However, the
identity matrix is never a subspace by itself, only the zero matrix is.
33% of the students answered this correctly.(B-False)

2. Question 2 was testing students knowledge of solution sets of matrices.

The first matrix, i.e the identity matrix, has the same rank and number
of variables; therefore, it has a unique solution. The second matrix, i.e
matrix B, has a rank of 2 but the number of variables are 3; therefore,
it has infinite many solutions. Hence, both the matrices do not have
the same number of solutions. 75% of the students answered this
correctly.(B-False)

3. Question 3 was testing students knowledge of column spaces. Let’s

rewrite the equation ~c = x~b as ~bx = ~c, which is of the same format
as Ax = b. So if ~bx = ~c is indeed true, then the column space that
contains ~b must also contain ~c. But ~b ∈ / C(A), therefore it cannot
be said that ~c ∈ C(A). 95% of the students answered this correctly.
(B-False)

4. Question 4 was also testing students knowledge of column spaces.

When we say the column space of A-I, we actually mean that we are
removing the identity matrix from A, this means that we are changing
the pivot elements which changes the column space of A. Therefore,
the two column spaces cannot be equal to each other. 87% of the
students answered this correctly. (B-False)

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5. Question 5 was testing student’s ability to identify the null space of
a certain matrix. Non-singular matrices are those matrices that have
a nonzero determinant. It means that these matrices are invertible.
Hence, the only solution for invertible matrices in the equation Ax = b
is x=0. Therefore, the null space is equal to the zero vector. 91% of
the students answered this correctly. (A-True)

6. Question 6 was testing student’s knowledge of the fundamental sub-

spaces. The fact that the column space C(A) is a subspace of Rm and
it always lies in this space, answers this question. 79% of the students
answered this correctly. (B)

7. Question 7 was testing student’s knowledge of basis and ranks. The

pivot columns of A are a basis for its column space. Furthermore, the
pivot rows of A are a basis for its row space. As the basis spans the
whole space and each vector can be written as a linear combination
of the basis vector; hence, every row and column is a multiple of the
pivot row and column respectively. The rank tells us that the number
of vectors in the basis is one. 75% of the students answered this
correctly. (A)