Could you tell me how to ask other's place in exam, race, or contest?

Question

Suppose my friend and i took a test yesterday.
I took a good grade and got 1st.
Now i'm really wondering about his place in our class, though. So i want to ask him directly.

How can i ask him? is it rude to ask those kinds of things? Even if it's rude, i want to know the expression used to ask the place or position in order.
Korean has a exact interrogative in this case.
Please help me..
I don't want to spend more time any more

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Suppose my friend and i took a test yesterday. I took a good grade and got 1st. Now i'm really ... want to ask him directly. How can i ask him? is it rude to ask those kinds of things?[/nq]
In general, you should be cautious about asking test scores. Custom and individual feelings vary.
[nq:1]Even if it's rude, i want to know the expression used to ask the place or position in order. Korean has a exact interrogative in this case.[/nq]
English does not, so you're not going to find an exact translation.

I've never heard of any exam in an English speaking country being returned with a number indicating its rank in the class, from 1st to 25th or whatever. Test papers are marked in various ways, but not that way.
But there are times, such as in sports and contests, when we arrange a list of results from best to worst. The words you'd expect to hear then are "ranking," "position," or "place" first place, second place, third place, etc. In that situation, you could ask your friend, "What place are you?" or "What place did you get?" Other questions are possible.
If someone wanted to know whether Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president, they might say, "What number president was he?"

Best Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Suppose my friend and i took a test yesterday. I took a good grade and got 1st. Now i'm really ... know the expression used to ask the place or position in order. Korean has a exact interrogative in this case.[/nq]
Well, nyaa-nyaa to you too. English has no such interrogative, because English speakers are generally too polite and self-effacing to request such information. If your friend is Korean, you already know what to do, since you know if asking is rude, and you have the word at your disposal. If you're speaking English, you can ask your friend how they did on the test. Then, if they think you ought to know what'th rank they had, they can tell you.

john

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Suppose my friend and i took a test yesterday. I ... him? is it rude to ask those kinds of things?[/nq]
[nq:1]In general, you should be cautious about asking test scores. Custom and individual feelings vary.[/nq]
Even among close friends who discuss their school classes and exams all the time, a direct question might not be asked. One might ask the other something like, "How did you do on the exam?". This would let the friend answer in general terms if he or she didn't feel like telling the exact score. (Possible answers include: "Pretty well." "Okay, I guess." "I bombed." "Don't ask!" (which means "badly enough that I'm at least going to pretend I don't want to talk about it") "Great! You?" "I got an 82." (which would normally mean 8 out of 100 possible points; as Donna mentioned, we don't usually report scores on individual tests by class rank). "Another (taboo word of choice may be inserted here, especially perhaps if two male friends are speaking) C minus.").

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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"I got an 82." (which would normally mean 8 out of 100 possible points...)[/nq]
For greater clarity: he means 82 out of 100, not 8 out of 100.
[nq:1]as Donna mentioned, we don't usually report scores on individual tests by class rank[/nq]
But if this information was known, and you did decide it was appropriate to ask for it, one way to word the question would be "Where in the class did you place?"
Some of my high school teachers (in Guelph, Ontario, Canada), it was the custom in some classes for the teacher to sort the tests by grade and hand them back in order; I think the grades were called out as well. So unless you were keeping count, you wouldn't know that your rank in the class was exactly 16th, but you would have an idea of it. I also remember some courses where lists of grades were posted on a door this must have been at university (Waterloo, Ontario), as teachers in my high school didn't have their own offices.
I have no idea whether this sort of thing is still done today as has been noted here before, in some places (my impression is that this is particularly true in the US) test results are considered highly confidential personal information.

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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I also remember some courses where lists of grades were posted on a door this must have been at university (Waterloo, Ontario), as teachers in my high school didn't have their own offices.[/nq]
My college used to post grades by student ID number, which usually was your social security number. I note that my office hands out sealed pay packets (no money inside, everything's direct deposit now, but maybe one day it'll contain a prize). It'd be more efficient to post everyone's particulars in the lunch room.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]In general, you should be cautious about asking test scores. Custom and individual feelings vary.[/nq]
Some people are shy, but I haven't come across anyone who'd take you to task for asking.
(Where is task, FTM?)
[nq:1]I've never heard of any exam in an English speaking country being returned with a number indicating its rank in the class, from 1st to 25th or whatever. Test papers are marked in various ways, but not that way.[/nq]
Of course they're not marked in this way. After they've been marked, then they can be ranked. Of course, your chance of knowing your ranking relies on either the examiner's (or middleperson's) willingness to tell you or having access to a list of everyone's mark.
[nq:1]But there are times, such as in sports and contests, when we arrange a list of results from best to ... situation, you could ask your friend, "What place are you?" or "What place did you get?" Other questions are possible.[/nq]
I've sometimes heard "Where did you come?" but I'm not sure I agree with this wording.
[nq:1]If someone wanted to know whether Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president, they might say, "What number president was he?"[/nq]
(OT)
In Esperanto: "Kioma prezidanto li estis?" (How-many-th president he was?)

An analogical construction of the OP's question could, I guess, be "Kiome vi venis?"
Stewart.

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Could you tell me how to ask other's place in exam, race, or contest?

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