Re: Returning of tests

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 14:55 -0400 10/31/01, Tim O'Donnell wrote:
> How many people return and allow the students to keep
> tests?  I go over the tests, but I recollect them.  That is
> "standard" procedure here. What about others?
I always returned mid-terms, and included a very condensed solution
sheet with each one. That way, the students could at least see what I
was expecting in the way of a solution. I really don't know how many
of the students even looked at the solution sheets. I would recycle
test problems after the students who last saw a given problem had
already graduated. I never saw any evidence that they had collected
files of old exams, although I'm surprised they never did. I always
told them that when I was in college, there were old exam files in
the school library! But in twenty years, I only heard of one of my
students having access to even the previous year's exams (which were
never the same as the current year's). She told me she had them; I
said fine, I hope they are of some help. Nevertheless, there never
seemed to be a move to collect old exams. I would have been willing
to put them in the library, but only if it was a general school
policy, and it never came to that.

I tried having students rework tests and resubmit them, but I was
usually so dilatory about getting them returned that by the time they
would have had a chance to rework them for a bit of extra credit, we
were way beyond the subject that the test covered. And most of the
students, esp. those who needed it most, didn't even bother. I
wouldn't let those who got As on the test resubmit, because most of
them were really grade grubbers and they would fight for every extra
point if they could. That is also why I quit offering extra credit on
exams the first time around, because I found out that the students
who needed the extra credit almost never tried, and the good students
almost always went for it, so it was a case of the rich getting
richer and the poor going down the drain.

But finals were different. We reviewed them with the students, but
they couldn't keep them. I always left the door open for any student
who wanted to "visit" his or her last final to do so at any time, but
they had to look at it in my office, where I would answer questions
(usually with another question), if they had any.

My experience with high school students is that most of them are
interested only in the grade they get, and don't care a whit if they
learn anything or not. That's not universal, of course. There are
those who are interested in learning and not in grades, but the ones
who told me that were inevitably mediocre students who were just
trying to rationalize their lousy grade.

Grading is a real pain, and I'm never sure what testing tells us,
other than the students are good at taking tests, or not. I have
never been associated with ungraded schools, so I don't know how they
keep the kids working, but I would like to find out. I understand
that most Friends' (Quaker) Schools are ungraded, but I have never
had a chance to talk to any teachers at those schools to see how they
keep their students motivated. But it seems to be true that their
students don't have any more trouble getting into colleges than
regular school students, maybe even less.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
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