At 10:15 PM 11/3/1999 -0500, Molly Straight wrote:
>>>>
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!<<<<
My first question would be what course is this and how is the computer-generated exam given? Some programs randomly select items, so it would be possible that the study guide would work for one set of items, but not the other. I'm guessing that this was more of a computer administered exam that used predetermined questions. But, you might want to make sure that it is giving the questions you selected...I've seen this problem before...
Also, I tend not to trust test banks very much. I have had the typical experiences of miskeyed items, etc. But, recently I discovered another more serious problem with one test bank I tried to use. The verbal ability needed to understand the test questions was at a much higher level than the book. Although many of my students are very bright, they also tend not to have the best reading comprehension in the world.
I had a hectic semester in grad school while teaching 3 courses (2 intro, 1 experimental for the first time), so I used the test bank more than usual as a time saver...little did I know...
After giving 2 tests from the test bank with less than a 60% pass rate on each test I knew something was up. Scores on my first intro test are always low... (they don't know how I test, it's the biological basis chapters that tend not to motivate them, etc...so I waited till the 2nd test before getting concerned.) My first guess was that they weren't taking good notes and studying. I talked with many of them (with 2 classes of 78 it's hard to talk to everyone, but with 3 I'd try talking with all of them). I asked them what they had done to prepare for the test? How did they study? How long did they study? Well, after hearing their responses and taking them with a grain of salt, I realized that wasn't the full problem. Then, I got concerned that I just wasn't able to teach... 2 years in and I can no longer convey ideas to students. YIKES! I was starting to panic...
So, again I talked to students and asked them questions about the material. Sure enough they knew it. They weren't great, but they certainly knew enough that they should have been able to pass the tests. So, for the third test I took the test bank and went item by item as I did for the first two tests. I selected the ones I liked and added a few of my own. I discovered that the test bank was sometimes using a different name than the book (and/or my lecture) for the same idea. Being advanced in the field, I didn't think much of this the first couple of tests... but for someone new to the area, who doesn't know all the terms, this can be a huge stumbling block. Some of the distractors were so close to being correct, I could easily see how they would miss the item unless they had become an expert in the area. I had realized this to a lesser degree with the first couple of tests, but didn't realize just how bad it was. (Perhaps I'm just drawn to the most difficult questions...)
Anyway, I went back through and rewrote all of the test bank items to make the stem easier to understand, and to make sure the distractors were still challenging but not impossible. I also made sure to use the same terminology on the test that I used in lecture. Suddenly, their scores went up and I had closer to an 75-80% pass rate. I still felt that it was not an easy test (I didn't have that many As, but at least I had some now...) The amount of material covered was the same. The concepts just as challenging. The biggest difference was the wording of the questions... my students just didn't understand the questions from the test bank as they were originally written. My tests were measuring both knowledge of psychology and verbal ability...
When I asked them about it (before passing back the tests) they all seemed more confident. They said they actually understood what the question was asking on this test, that the wording of the questions wasn't confusing them anymore. They still overestimated their grades to some extent, but they were at least guessing about 50 now.
So... my biggest suggestion is to talk with them. Either one-on-one or as a group depending on how close they are to each other... ask them what problems they have with the test, how are the studying, etc. Also, be a little more wary of the test bank... it took me 2.5 years to figure this one out...
Hope this helps...
- Marc
PS- I'm also interested to know which college you teach at? I'd love to have a class of 3 sometime! My smallest in 3 years has been 24... the joys of larger institutions...
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Lecturer & Head of Computer Operations
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
