tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post5020935153095174493..comments2024-03-16T08:56:35.554-07:00Comments on Economics for Teachers: Musings about Teaching Economics: When is an exam "too hard"?Jennifer Imazekihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15217003898479507362noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-12828219186446185482010-05-12T08:14:25.541-07:002010-05-12T08:14:25.541-07:00@Mark: You raise a really good point. I think a bi...@Mark: You raise a really good point. I think a big part of why my tests are hard for students is that I try to write questions where they really have to understand deeply in order to do well. And that tends to mean that some students, no matter how much time they have, are just not going to be able to figure out the answers. So it shouldn't hurt to make the tests a bit shorter, giving them more time but hopefully still assessing learning...<br />@Doc: I'd be curious to know more about how you do the re-test. I've thought about doing something like this but am a bit baffled by the logistics - do you write a new test? do you take class time to do the re-test? I'd have to think hard about how to do this with my class of 500...Jennifer Imazekihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15217003898479507362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-3217318170494232952010-04-20T10:15:34.381-07:002010-04-20T10:15:34.381-07:00I've had that conversation, as well. And I al...I've had that conversation, as well. And I also have had to try to figure out what to do.<br /><br />For me, there is (at least) not the constraint of a departmental target or expectation for the overall GPA in a particular level of a course. I tell my students that I will be happy if they all do well enough to het high grades, but I'm prepared to live with a situation in which they don't...after 30 years, I'm pretty well able to estimate how hard the exams are.<br /><br />But sometimes things go wrong. I can occasionally write tests that turn out to be harder than I expected. My solution (and I do not recommend it for everyone, but it works for me) is to offer students the opportunity to take a second test over the same material. If they do better on the retest, they get the retest score. if they don't, they keep their initial score. And I do this within a week of the initial test. (I only do two in-semester tests and a final, by the way.)<br /><br />What amazes me is how often students who have not done all that well (defined as low Cs and lower) do not take advantage of the opportunity. And there's nothing I can do about that.Don Coffinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-50553779189875190542010-04-16T15:13:27.658-07:002010-04-16T15:13:27.658-07:00As usual, Jennifer, you raise lots of important is...As usual, Jennifer, you raise lots of important issues in your post. Let me respond to one about tests being too long, because it is something I have chastised myself about nearly semester for twenty years! <br /><br />Although it clear that students who prepare well for tests usually are able to complete what I assign, there are often several students who don't finish. I don't feel good about giving them lower grades because they work more slowly, whereas other students earn similar low grades but obviously have learned much less. I feel even more guilty when my children complain about similar situations in their college courses. <br /><br />All this is remind myself to try not to make my tests a "speed drill" and more focused on assessing learning.Mark Maiernoreply@blogger.com