Exams
So we finished another week of midterm exams. I often wonder around this time of year what the whole point is of having them. I'm not convinced yet that they are a valuable learning tool as they now stand: 150 or 200 multiple choice questions, many of which are a game of trivial pursuit. No higher-order critical thinking going on there, just recall. Sure, some parts of an exam can be designed to include critical thinking, but I haven't seen enough of that yet. And the gotcha questions are terrible--strictly designed to trap students. I vote for exams that ask students to write out written responses to the material covered--yes, this means sitting down and grading them by hand, but that's our job, isn't it?
posted by olgapolites at 8:04 AM
11 Comments:
I completely agree with your Exams blog. In my opinion, multiple choice is harder than open ended because in open ended you can write down anything you think rather than having a 25% chance of being wrong.
I completely agree with Mrs. Polites blog on midterms. They are pointless. I cannot take a test of 200 questions, twice, everyday for a school week. I honestly go crazy and eventually give up, forcing me to fail, miserably.
This year I used one of the teachers grading formula charts to figure out what the minimum grades for me to get were to keep my current grade. I found out that my grade wouldnt change all to much by taking these tests... After doing all this math I realized that I just prioritized my grades and classes, why was I sitting here worrying about insted of studying proofs or chemistry nomenclature? I merely was worrying about a number and not knowledge.
i completely agree with this blog. I rather take my chance in getting some type of partial credit with an essay of some sort than just a straight yes or no. A complete essay midterm and final would most likely inprove student scores as well as lessen some of the stresses of studying for EVERYTHING.
I agree. 200 multiple choice questions does absolutly nothing except hurt my head. It in no way helps me remember any information i retained throughout the school year. All exams do for me is stress me out and make me realize that im terrible at trying to remember everything on the study guide; all 8 pages of it. its pointness
I 100% agree with Mrs. Polites. We work hard for weeks to get the grades we have, then all of a sudden there are these huge exams that then count for 25% of our semester grade. That will take you from your hard earned A down to a B. Some people, like myself, are awful test takers. I also believe this to be true about the HSPAs and the SATs. Ridiculous.
I agree as well, the premise of right or wrong, black or white answers is absurd. I think benefits, of answering questions "open-ended" style, are palpable. Multiple choice tests, the Ominous "scantron" tests tend to be more detrimental to our grades than essay questions. Primarily because most teachers award points for incomplete answers on an essays.
Mrs. Polites you nailed this one right on the head. I actually agree with Bianca about the multiple choice because you can make silly mistakes by not reading thouroghly. I however would not mind writing out the answers.
I completely agree with your blog. I dont understand why we have to take exams if we are being tested on everything all year long. I think that it puts to much stress on us, and we worry to much about them when we shouldnt have to take them at all. It makes me freak out and then I ended doing bad on almost all of them. Every year taking them 2 times a year i dont think is a good idea. It puts way to much stress on all the students.
I totally agree with the blog about the midterms. I actually did very well on my exams that i had to write down a response, but the ones with 200 questions i did horrible on. This was simply the fact that i was rushing to recall all the information and also finish the test in time. Its crazy to think about studying for a exam that has that many questions, becuase honestly more than half of the questions arent even that challenging. I wish that teachers would give students a reasonable amount of questions and make them more difficult so i have to think more, not just memorize stupid information that ill never remember.
i agree with your blog about exams. i think that all they really do is stress us out; being they are not really significant enough to largely impact your grade. i also agree with the idea of having written responses to questions, instead of 150-200 multiple choice questions. i think this gives the opportunity to explain your answer, which can be the deciding factor between a right and wrong answer.
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