Monday, January 31, 2011

Geez, and I thought it was a good test

Wrote a test for the non-majors course that I thought was thorough and appropriate. Looked good when the first students turned it in at 35 minutes and the last at 50 minutes. Class average? 60.8% I even had a 25% (on a 4 answer multiple choice). High score? 84.

I need to adjust (curve, throw out questions) before handing them back so I don't crush their curiosity. Right?

3 comments:

  1. Well, it depends how the students had been doing in class. Once, I had a class that were a bunch of slackers. I designed a test where the good ones would do good, and the bad ones would fail miserably. I had 20 students. 10 of them got between 72% and 98%. Average of the class? A 68. I didn't change a single thing, I remarked the math, and told them that it proved that if you studied regularly for my class, you would do good. It was a class for majors and minors, if it changes something.

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  2. Let them write out the correct answers and the reason for them on the questions they missed for half credit. That makes it a good learning experience, you don't have to grade much (just check it to make sure it's right), and grades improve.

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  3. In the past I have posted the top questions missed and made it an online quiz that they could take open book -- they could earn back a certain fraction for each question to up their grade. Everyone had the same opportunity to earn points to add to their exam grade. I like this sort of thing better than just adjusting the scores. I think it helps them to learn the material.

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