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Re: exams on file



I'd be very careful about this whole 'exams on file' approach--it works
better for problem solving exams than conceptual exams. I think one can
fool themselves about how students use these. Try the following: Post last
year's exam. Now write your new exam with exactly the same answers, but
change the questions. That is, change the format of the questions without
changing what is being asked. If you had used a multiple choice question
change it to an essay or even true/false. Even with problems, often doing
nothing more than changing the values of the given data produces surprising
results.

The problem with the posted test approach, IMO, is that it encourages a
study pattern that ENTIRELY relies on these old tests. Therefore, be sure
that everything you want the students to know is represented in these old
tests. You must then be very careful to contruct new tests so that students
can't answer by having memorized the old tests, and you should avoid
problems that allow the students to use the old test problems as simple
templates for the new solutions.

Rick