Sorry, folks, my address book for TIPs seems to be messed up. Al -----Original Message----- From: Al Cone Sent: Thursday, November 04, 1999 4:52 AM To: 'TIPS' Subject: FW: exams -----Original Message----- From: Al Cone Sent: Thursday, November 04, 1999 4:46 AM To: 'Molly Straight' Cc: 'TIPS' Subject: RE: exams Ah, Molly, welcome to the world! Thirty years and I've had a chance to see the deterioration first hand. Carrie Buck of Buck v. Bell fame wrote better than many of my current "best" students, and we say we emphasize excellence here. By the way, I've read over a dozen of Carrie Buck's letters after she was discharged from the institution for the retarded where she won her fame as being one of the "three generations of imbeciles," and was sterilized in the 1920s. I know whereof I speak. I'm not sure what one does with such a small class and multiple choice tests. With larger classes, I always do a complete item analysis so that I can find items that correlate zero or negatively to throw out along items that fewer than 25% get right. I have become highly suspicious of test banks that come with books. I've seen more than one with questions about a given topic which weren't in the text at all. The author of the book seldom writes the questions. Oh, and items that are flat-out miskeyed! We write instructional objectives before the semester begins, and make sure that the questions we use are highly correlated with them. Even so, some bad items slip though. As to writing, there is a whole movement called teaching writing across the curriculum. I now know that the three years between college and graduate school spent teaching English in a rural consolidated high school weren't wasted. Again, those kids in the late 50s wrote better than many of our current students. Frankly, only one or two of our English faculty make any improvement in the writing of our students during English 101, and those people are avoided like the plague. When, just yesterday, I suggested that one of my brightest students take an elective with one of the hard English teachers she protested that she didn't want a C on her transcript! I argued that he would improve her writing. I lost. So, don't give up. It requires more work than they ever told you in graduate school. It is a wonderful life. It is the only place I know where one can actually practice life-long learning. One more. "...other than give a make-up exam." In Stat, I give a test on Chapter One. Then, I give a test on Chapters One though Three. If performance on that second "test 1" is better, it replaces the earlier one. My thought is that they need a warm up to find out what one of my tests is like. Many of them really do come to college very naive about what college is all about. A final disclaimer. Many, many of them are extremely bright. They are disorganized, and they think they already know it all, but they can be shaped. Hope this helps a bit. Al Al L. Cone Jamestown College <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> North Dakota 701.252.3467 X 2604 http://www.jc.edu/users/faculty/cone <http://www.jc.edu/users/faculty/cone> -----Original Message----- From: Molly Straight [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 9:16 PM To: TIPS Subject: exams I am in my first year of teaching at a small private college. I only have 3 students in my class! I just gave an exam on 2 chapters and had a D and 2 F's. And this was a computer-generated exam from the test bank that came with the text! I had even given them a study guide, which I wrote after I had made up the exam! One of the reasons I just joined this list and a few others, was for ideas, support, and inspiration. So, Annette & others, what do you do besides give a make-up exam? I don't really want to do that. I do not have class time to spend on that. I assigned an essay combining elements from both chapters, for 15 points towards their exam grade (total of 60 points). They had the weekend to do it. I feel I have to know that they understand the material or else I cannot give them a passing grade on the material. I have also been very disappointed in the quality of their writing. What are they teaching in high schools, anyway? These students were probably considered good students in high school. So, I have had to lower my expectations of their writing or they would all be failing! Other instructors there are having the same problems. I was an undergraduate just three years ago myself and I would not have dreamed of turning in papers of the level that they are. Molly Straight
