Is that the correct answer?

[JohnR7]

If you take a exam for a course, how do you determine the answers the instructor is looking for?

If you answer the questions correctly, but you do not give the exact answer the instructor was looking for, then do you think you would or should score as high on the exam?

 

[lucaspa]

Today at 01:03 PM JohnR7 said this in Post #1

If you take a exam for a course, how do you determine the answers the instructor is looking for?

If you answer the questions correctly, but you do not give the exact answer the instructor was looking for, then do you think you would or should score as high on the exam?

Is this a science or theology course?  Having trouble with one of your teachers, John?

 

[Quath]

I use to always go over my exam after they were passed back. About 1/5 of the time I would take my test back to the teacher and explain something. Most of the time I was given points.

One big problem of the education system is that tests are suppose to measure knowledge of the students on a subject. However, no one tests the tests to see if the tests are measuring accurately. You basically have to rely on the teacher to have a "feel" for how good their tests are.

I would like to see teachers give several tests on the same material. Like one essay, one multiple choice, and one oral. Get the medium, mode, standard deviation, etc. Then see how consistent the scores are among the various tests.

Scott (Quath)

 

[Didymus]

as one with teaching expierence your idea is valid but only would be able to done in a small class. that is why students with learnig disabilities of any kind are give test modifications. I could give some examples if you would like

 

[DNAunion]

JohnR7: If you take a exam for a course, how do you determine the answers the instructor is looking for?

DNAunion: Did you attend all the lectures, read all the handouts, and do all the assigments? If so, you should know what answers the instructor is looking for.

JohnR7: If you answer the questions correctly, but you do not give the exact answer the instructor was looking for, then do you think you would or should score as high on the exam?

DNAunion: Depends on what you mean by answering the questions correctly. If the question is, "How does evolution explain the diversity of life?" and you give as the "correct answer", "Evolution is a lie - and that's the truth!", then you should get that question wrong.

However, if your answer is actually correct in the eyes of science (assuming this is a science class), then you should ask your instructor why points were deducted.

As an example, I remember telling my nieces that water is not a good conductor of electricity. They then, coincidentally, had that asked on a test: "Water is a good conductor of electricity: True or False". They answered false and the teacher marked it wrong. They should have argued the point because in fact water is NOT a good conductor of electricity.

Another one came to mind. I remember in one of my beginning biology classes one of the questions on the test was, "ATP is a nucleotide: True or False". I answered false and the instructor marked it wrong. I debated that and documented my argument. First, I showed him that in our text ATP was stated to be a nucleotide derivative. Next I showed him that our text stated a nucleotide was a nucleoside monophosphate (not a nucleoside triphosphate, like ATP). He agreed to count my answer as correct.

 

[lucaspa]

Today at 01:45 PM Quath said this in Post #3 

One big problem of the education system is that tests are suppose to measure knowledge of the students on a subject. However, no one tests the tests to see if the tests are measuring accurately. You basically have to rely on the teacher to have a "feel" for how good their tests are.

That's why I normalize the scores to the highest actual grade in class: to help eliminate any failings in my test or my teaching.  I also look over the tests to see if certain questions were missed by everyone or nearly everyone and exactly how they were missed.  That helps determine if the problem is the test or the teaching. 

 

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

One big problem of the education system is that tests are suppose to measure knowledge of the students on a subject. However, no one tests the tests to see if the tests are measuring accurately. You basically have to rely on the teacher to have a "feel" for how good their tests are.

That's not entirely true. We have a system that allows the analysis of test questions and we do use it in some cases. We are using it now to try to develop valid "longitudinal exams" to track the progess of our students overall.  The questions are analyzed to see if they discriminate and if there is good correlation between students who got that question right and did well overall. Interestly questions that rate well with one class may not always rate as well with another class (our class sizes are around 70) even though both classes were taught the same material from the same instructors. For the most part though we just look over our tests in the way that Lucas described.   I think that most instructors do develop a feel for how good their tests are in this. Of course, there are always exceptions.

We generally grade on a curve but not always. One thing I have found over the years is that if there is any possible way to misinterpret a question someone is certain to do so and that students can find interpretations of questions that you never imagined.

It can also be a bit annoying to the prof when students only are interested in learning what will be on the test and not the material in general but that's life in academia.  

Prof. Frumious B.

 

[JohnR7]

Today at 01:13 PM lucaspa said this in Post #2

Is this a science or theology course?  Having trouble with one of your teachers, John?

Make it science is that is what your most associated with.

No trouble, I am making progress, I went from a D to a C. Not bad considering I have been out of school for 30 years and it takes a bit of adjustment to get back into the swing of things.

But the question is based more on two observations here on the board. First people here seem to enjoy answering questions. That could indicate one of the reasons people have advanced degrees. If for one person a test is stressful but in a round about way enjoyable for someone else. To enjoy taking exams could be one reason people go on with their education.

Another observation is that there are people here I have observed who seem to have a good ability to give the answer the instructor is looking for. This makes life very easy for them. So because getting a education is again a somewhat enjoyable experance, this could explain why you have people who always seem to be going after one sort of degree or another.

In your case, I would venture to say that your going to put down the answer that you think is the correct one, no matter what the instructor may think about it, even if it were to cause you to fail the course, then at least you could have the satisifaction of thinking that YOU were right, even if the instructor was wrong.

 

[JohnR7]

Today at 01:45 PM Quath said this in Post #3

I use to always go over my exam after they were passed back. About 1/5 of the time I would take my test back to the teacher and explain something. Most of the time I was given points. 

I remember back when I was in collage I would go up to the instructor after the class and ask them what they thought I could do to improve my grade. They usually did not have much of an answer for me, but I noticed after that they would start to give me a better grade.

 

[JohnR7]

Today at 01:51 PM Didymus said this in Post #4

as one with teaching expierence your idea is valid but only would be able to done in a small class. that is why students with learnig disabilities of any kind are give test modifications. I could give some examples if you would like

The problem when your dealing with "learning disabilities" is not so much they can not learn. But that they do not learn as fast using the conventional methoids. This would be ok, if you could just put them in their own class, but each one has their own way of learning. It is almost typical darwinism.

A good instructor will have no problem with a student with so called learning problems, because they will just keep searching tell they find that individual's methoid for learning.

 

[JohnR7]

Today at 06:43 PM DNAunion said this in Post #5 

As an example, I remember telling my nieces that water is not a good conductor of electricity. They then, coincidentally, had that asked on a test: "Water is a good conductor of electricity: True or False". They answered false and the teacher marked it wrong. They should have argued the point because in fact water is NOT a good conductor of electricity. 

Water may not be a good conductor, but it's better than rubber. What it is good at, is that it is a very good ground.
That is why you always need to use a GFI when your using electric around water. Other wise it could zap you and kill you. At least with AC, because it is always looking for a ground.

 

[Joe_Sixpack]

"Water may not be a good conductor, but it's better than rubber. What it is good at, is that it is a very good ground.
That is why you always need to use a GFI when your using electric around water. Other wise it could zap you and kill you. At least with AC, because it is always looking for a ground."

You are confusing water as in just plain H20 with ground or seawater which contains a lot of ions. Distilled water (i.e. just plain water) is actually a very good insulator. Salt water or any water with mineral ions is a very good conductor.

 

[DNAunion]

Joe_SixPack: You are confusing water as in just plain H20 with ground or seawater which contains a lot of ions. Distilled water (i.e. just plain water) is actually a very good insulator. Salt water or any water with mineral ions is a very good conductor.

DNAunion: Indeed, and one can demonstrate this is his/her own house.

Basically, you get a battery and create a series circuit that includes a light bulb. At one point in the circuit, you cut the wire and place the two ends into a beaker so that they make contact with a fluid contained in that beaker. First, place water (that is H2O, distilled water) into the beaker and try the circuit - it won't work. Then poor some salt into the water and try again - this time current will flow through the circuit. What happened is that the salt - a neutral compound - dissolved in the water to give individual sodium cations (Na+) and chlorine anions (Cl-), and these charged particles then allowed the flow of charge through the circuit to occur.

Note that the qualifier "good" was used, as in water is not a good conductor of electricity. "Anything" can be made to conduct electricity if enough potential difference exists across it. For example, in electronics, air is considered to have infinite resistance (that's why an open series circuit won't conduct electricity). But air conducts electricity all the time - it's called lightning. In fact, the spark plugs in car engines also conduct electricity through air.