*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* || Issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers

The Young Mathematicians' Network
Serving the Community of Young Mathematicians

Sections:

Front Page Career Diaries Editors Work and Family Life Grad Life Job Search Misc Paths to Math Research Teaching Undergrad Life Events Frequently Asked Questions News

Examinations

Teaching

By overconvergent
Posted Mon May 31, 2004 at 05:35:23 PM PDT

The quarter here at the University of Podunk has just ended, and I have given my students their final examination. This made me think about how to set examinations, and what they are supposed to measure, and how they're supposed to measure it.

Post a Comment

I went to an English university for my undergraduate and graduate education. The undergraduate examinations were highly stylised; they were all two hours long, were proctored, and were either 5 or 6 questions. (It's not quite as baroque as the thankfully-defunct Cambridge Tripos).

I think I almost accepted this system as the way that things should be, as I'd never experienced anything different. Then I came to the United States, which has a much more diverse examination system. Some universities and colleges have honor codes which allow take-home examinations, some run multiple-choice quizzes and yet others do run proctored examinations.

Clearly the type of examination that is given changes the type of question that you can ask; by setting an open-book exam, you can ask much more difficult and detailed questions, whereas if you have closed-book examinations then you can test whether the students actually remember anything that was taught.

I am no longer sure that the system that I grew up with, of proctored and timed exams, is the best. I am not sure how to replace them, and with what.

< New Largest Prime Number Found | Changes in the Workplace? >

Examinations | 2 comments (1 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] Different ways for different courses (none / 0) (#2)
by halewis on Wed Jun 02, 2004 at 05:59:38 AM PDT

For many classes I'll give a straightforward final, with perhaps 8-9 questions (some with multiple parts, nothing worth too much). I don't give open-book timed exams, but in a few classes, like calculus, I let students come with a 3x5 card. I used to let it be essentially open book, in that they could bring lots of papers, but I found that this actually hurt the students. They didn't study as much because they knew they'd have lots of notes, but then they couldn't even answer the simple questions as well. By shrinking the amount of notes they could bring in, and settling on a 3x5 card (sometimes I only allow one side, too, and check as I hand them the final), they have to be very careful about what they wrote down (What's really Important?) so they study more and they learn the material better. Some students do fill the card with teeny tiny formulas, handwritten or printed, but it has to be pretty well organized to be any good and they've often confessed that after all that work they didn't really need the card.

For some upper level classes, though, a 2-3 hour exam really isn't enough to ask them the kind of in-depth question I want to ask. Abstract Algebra comes to mind. In those classes I will give a take-home exam, although I sometimes pair it with a short in-class exam to test basic concepts. I have mixed feelings about this. Often the take-home exam works very well, but twice there have been suspicions of cheating, and there's not much I can do about that -- even talking to the student carries consequences (I have talked to the students in both cases, but the first time I wasn't as careful about how I presented my concerns and I think it hurt our relationship in the long-term. Since I didn't have anything close to proof, I'm now not sure I should have even talked to her.). In order to minimize cheating I try to limit the amount of time they have to 1-2 days, and they're not allowed to talk at all about the exams to others, even whether they've finished a problem or not. They find the not-talking to be the most challenging!

Incidentally, while my finals are a little longer than my in-class exams, I tend to give the same kind of final as I gave mid-term (in-class or take-home). The only exception is that sometimes I don't allow an index card on the mid-terms, but I do for the final because the final is cumulative. And finals typically account for 20-35% of the grade in the class, with homework, exams, papers, or projects making up the rest.

If you're thinking of changing your exams style, then look at each course individually and see if the way you test is the way you want to for that class. If it isn't, then you can think about what method of testing would work better. I don't think that there's any one right way for everyone or for every class, as long as you feel comfortable with it and the students are aware of what you plan to do, and I think sometimes it takes trying different ways to settle on what you like best.

Examinations | 2 comments (1 topical, 0 hidden)

Menu

create account
FAQ
Search
Recent Comments

Login

Make a new account

Username:

Password:

Poll

Which examination system should be used for undergraduate courses?
The "54 hours of examinations" system used in the old Tripos
Proctored examinations
Presentations
Take-home examinations
Some mixture of the above
Grades are evil and shouldn't be given

Votes: 13
Results | Other Polls

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest

create account | faq | search