Re: mcats

["Dave Baum - Drew University Physics Dept." <DBAUM@drew.edu>]

> Three years ago, I gave my students the answer cards for a 40-mc quiz. No
questions were given.  They "guessed" the answers then I gave them the quiz
with a new answer card of course!  SURPRISE..They scored less the second
time [guessing was 30%; answering was 24%]...


sounds like you're doing 'negative teaching.'

when i was in grad school, we had a professor who gave a MC exam 
to a class of 350. If all the students had guessed, the ave should have been 
about 25%, but the actual average was 15%.

I see absolutely NO reason to tailor a class towards preparation for the MCats.
that's the tail wagging the dog.  Student, and unfortunately many professors,
think that students take physics as preparation for the Mcats, when the
question they should be asking themselves is, WHY are physics questions
asked on the exam?  I think to ensure that students have taken a physics
course, which there fore should be taught as an exercise in those skills
ALL well educated persons should have, namely clarity of expression,
ability to reason in a number of different ways, squashing habits
of wishful thinking, et c.

db