In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Gus Gassmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>"J. Williams" wrote:
>> When I taught undergraduate statistics in a previous lifetime, I would
>> distribute copies of the mid-term and final examinations minus the
>> data sets one week prior. Students could study the actual exam
>> together, apart, or however best fit their mode. This eliminated any
>> untoward "surprises." The data sets were distributed at the time of
>> the exam. One of the side benefits for me, being naturally lazy,
>> was that I rarely had to alter the various items or prepare a totally
>> new testing vehicle. Only the data sets changed for each class. I
>> think to some extent, the time-pressure element was avoided as was
>> undue apprehension. It might be worth trying to see if it works in
>> your particular situation.
>My knee-jerk reaction to this is that it will do exactly the opposite
>of what you want. It places undue emphasis on memorization and
>number crunching, and may actively promote cheating, since the
>students _know_ how to trim the available information to something
>they can use in the exam. I much prefer Herman Rubin's suggestion
>of open book, open notes. The problem I have encountered quite
>frequently, however, is that many students don't bother to study,
>because they "can always look it up during the exam". This creates
>enormous time pressure, of course.
I agree that this is testing the trivia. Having taught
probability with the full two-year calculus sequence as
a prerequisite, less than 25% of the undergraduates had
the understanding to use calculus on a takehome part of
the final. BTW, those undergraduate were prospective
high school teachers of mathematics; they know how to
memorize and carry out routine, but understand nothing.
One way of getting around this problem is to allow notes of
a limited size. Anyhow, those who think they can "look it
up" will not know what to look up if the problems are not
like the one in the book.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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