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Re: a different test scoring policy?



In my math logic exams, I often give a short true/false section as a warm
up. I have occasionally set the questions so that ALL of the answers are
true (or false). Many of the poorer students complain that it is unfair,
even though they only find out when I give the answer sheet. The good
students just answer the questions and don't use "strategies".

Richard Grandy
Philosophy & Cognitive Sciences
Rice University


At 12:10 PM -0700 6/15/98, Leigh Palmer wrote:
A strategy that I find effective that discourages "plug-and-chuggers" is to
give extraneous but plausible data - stuff that looks as if it might be
needed to solve the problem, but really has nothing to do with it.

I use this technique (which a few students consider to be "unfair")
on my examinations. Usually I will alert them to the presence of
such extraneity by giving, at some juncture, the day of the week,
or the color of some part of the system.

It is interesting to note the poorer students' concern with what
they incorrectly call "fairness". Numerical questions which yield
answers of zero are said to be "trick questions" and have also been
called "unfair" at times by some of those students. It is my
impression that good students never complain about such things.

Leigh