The Test that went South
The past two weeks have been particularly important because all my classes have had their first midterms. And thus, they have also been particularly stressful. It is especially important to do well on the first test so that you have a good foundation on which to build the rest of the semester. Last week, I had Accounting and German Exams. This week, I had Community Health, Management, and Healthcare Organization/Management exams. I managed to do well on last week’s exams—this week was a little different, shall we say.
I shall remind the reader that I am not particularly fond of my Community Health class. If you will recall, the professor originally scheduled for this class was called away the day before the semester began to tend to her husband who had fallen out of a second story window in Australia and was paralyzed. So this class was added on to another professor whose heart clearly hasn’t been into teaching it. We spend our days listening to her just read off Power Point slides with an occasional “What do y’all think about—” discussion, which—for all intents and purposes—is worthless. The textbook is two inches thick, and we were told to “make sure we read the book.” So in preparing for this test, I read my book, and I studied my notes. Dr. W told us if we read the book and know our Power Point slides, we’d be fine.
Now, I am one who—all things considered—has pretty decent study habits. I made myself a great study guide and put in a decent number of hours into reading and studying for the exam. In fact, I actually felt fairly confident going into the test. And I remained that way… until question number 2. I knew the answer for the first question, but it was downhill from there. Folks, this test was like no other test I have ever taken. I am now in my third year of college, and this was the worst one I have come across yet.
Let me just describe it to you: First of all, it was not even Dr. W’s test; we were tested off of the first professor’s test. That fact alone should’ve been the first sign of things to come. At any rate, the test was made up of 100 multiple choice and true/false questions. The questions themselves were absolutely ridiculous questions to be tested on. They were based on the smallest of details found in the textbook. Forget the main and important points. No! We were tested on the year of the first census (which has very little to do with community health), the year that UNICEF was founded, whether or not WHO is the oldest international health organization, whether or not the mosquito is the most important vector of all, what credentials the director of a health department must have, and on and on and on. None of these particular details were ever mentioned in class. If you didn’t manage to notice it enough to remember when reading the book—well, forget it. The questions were bad enough, but added to that was the fact that we had five options to choose from in the multiple choice questions with choices like: None of the above; All of the above; A and B; A, B, and C; Just A and C—and these were on almost every question!
For the first time, the things that I didn’t know equaled and maybe even exceeded the things that I did know—and that’s an AWFUL feeling. Adding to the stress was the classroom monitor the prof was kind enough to leave in charge while she skipped the class. The monitor strolled up and down the aisles—up and down, up and down, around and around. My nerves were absolutely FRAZZLED by the time I had filled in all 100 circles. I wanted to shout at the monitor to sit down!! But I didn’t. I left that classroom as upset as I have ever been at anything academic. The things on that test were totally unfair—and I was fairly confident that unless I had guessed correctly, I would be lucky to escape with a C. Yes, a C!!! Lucky!!!
I was so upset, in fact, that when I got home that night to pick up Cleo, I ranted and raved about it to Mom and Dad. They were of great comfort to a distressed bear. Mom was ready to fire the prof, I think. My dislike for this class since that test has greatly intensified, shall we say.
When I returned to the class on Thursday, I was braced and ready to receive my first flunked test, if necessary. I reminded myself time and again that my value is not based on my performance, nor lack thereof. But it felt pretty rotten, just the same. There were some students sitting outside the classroom when I got there, and we commenced a discussion of the test. I shall leave out the colorful language that was floating around the hall, but suffice it to say I found out that I was not the only student who felt we had been tested unfairly. And as we filed into the classroom, the discussion continued. I found out there are methods of handling tests of this nature such as the “Eeny Meeny Miney Moe” method or the “Choose the one that hasn’t been used in a while” method. Both of these methods weren’t ones I had utilized, but I would venture to say that my results couldn’t have been much worse if I had. One girl said she was so upset by the test that she couldn’t even go to her next class—she just went home. We all agreed that for this test, the teacher was absolutely irrelevant. We may as well have spent our class time at home, reading and memorizing the book.
To make matters worse, we didn’t even get our tests back that day because “another student hadn’t taken his test yet.” The prof did say, however, that before we have heart attacks, we should know that she curved our grades by 12 points. (Well, thank goodness for that!) One lady asked her what the class average was. It turns out that the class average was a 60% before the curve--well, no surprise here. Someone else asked if anyone had gotten an A. One person got an A—after the curve, she said. The highest grade was a 78 before the curve, a 90 after. Although we didn’t get our tests back, she said she had posted our grades on Blackboard. So after class, I headed for the library to check my grade.
I could have wept with relief when I saw the 90 posted under my name. I could hardly believe it, that as stupid as I felt while taking that test, I had actually managed to come out with the highest grade at a 78, mind you. I can’t imagine how much worse the others felt. I will just say that it is NO FUN to take a test when you feel like you literally don’t know any more than half the answers, at best. I know I got some lucky guesses—there was no way that I knew even 78 of those answers.
Since I probably will never be asked for my advice on what makes a good class and/or professor, I'll just seize this opportunity to share what I think about the topic in general:
Kris's List of Advice for Professors
1. There is absolutely no honor or merit in testing students on trivial details. It is impossible to memorize a textbook, and thus, the focus of both the teacher and the students should be on the IMPORTANT things of the class that will carry over to a life career. Trivial details belong on tests as bonus points only!
2. A test should not be comprised of anything that has not at least been mentioned in class. If there isn’t enough class time to mention the information, then it isn’t important enough to be tested on.
3. A teacher cannot teach effectively by merely reading Power Point slides to the class and telling the class to “read the textbook.” I am paying some pretty hefty tuition to be taught something. So teach me.
4. The textbook should be used as a resource for clarification or for more in-depth understanding. It should not be used as a substitute for obtaining information the teacher should be giving.
5. Do not threaten me with “pop quizzes.” It does nothing more than cause me undue stress, and stress is something I have plenty of without adding pop quizzes. Tell me what is expected of me and when. If you want to quiz me on something—fine. Just tell me in advance when it is going to be so that I can ration my time to appropriately prepare for it.
6. Keep in mind, Professor Dear, that your class is not my only class—nor is it the climax of my education. In most cases, it is merely a means to an end. Do not add “busy work” just because you lump me into a class of students that has nothing better to do than to drink and party. If your assignments do not contribute to my future career, don’t waste my valuable time with it.
7. Do not play on or exploit my weaknesses by asking tricky questions or giving options on tests such as “None of the above,” or “All of the above, etc.”
8. Remember that relationships with your students are important too. It does not hurt you to attempt, at the very least, to learn their names.
9. If I email you a question about something class-related, the least you can do is send me a prompt response.
10. I feel like I need ten things on my list to keep it tidy, but I haven’t come up with the tenth one yet. At any rate, someone who is merely skimming this list will never notice.
I shall remind the reader that I am not particularly fond of my Community Health class. If you will recall, the professor originally scheduled for this class was called away the day before the semester began to tend to her husband who had fallen out of a second story window in Australia and was paralyzed. So this class was added on to another professor whose heart clearly hasn’t been into teaching it. We spend our days listening to her just read off Power Point slides with an occasional “What do y’all think about—” discussion, which—for all intents and purposes—is worthless. The textbook is two inches thick, and we were told to “make sure we read the book.” So in preparing for this test, I read my book, and I studied my notes. Dr. W told us if we read the book and know our Power Point slides, we’d be fine.
Now, I am one who—all things considered—has pretty decent study habits. I made myself a great study guide and put in a decent number of hours into reading and studying for the exam. In fact, I actually felt fairly confident going into the test. And I remained that way… until question number 2. I knew the answer for the first question, but it was downhill from there. Folks, this test was like no other test I have ever taken. I am now in my third year of college, and this was the worst one I have come across yet.
Let me just describe it to you: First of all, it was not even Dr. W’s test; we were tested off of the first professor’s test. That fact alone should’ve been the first sign of things to come. At any rate, the test was made up of 100 multiple choice and true/false questions. The questions themselves were absolutely ridiculous questions to be tested on. They were based on the smallest of details found in the textbook. Forget the main and important points. No! We were tested on the year of the first census (which has very little to do with community health), the year that UNICEF was founded, whether or not WHO is the oldest international health organization, whether or not the mosquito is the most important vector of all, what credentials the director of a health department must have, and on and on and on. None of these particular details were ever mentioned in class. If you didn’t manage to notice it enough to remember when reading the book—well, forget it. The questions were bad enough, but added to that was the fact that we had five options to choose from in the multiple choice questions with choices like: None of the above; All of the above; A and B; A, B, and C; Just A and C—and these were on almost every question!
For the first time, the things that I didn’t know equaled and maybe even exceeded the things that I did know—and that’s an AWFUL feeling. Adding to the stress was the classroom monitor the prof was kind enough to leave in charge while she skipped the class. The monitor strolled up and down the aisles—up and down, up and down, around and around. My nerves were absolutely FRAZZLED by the time I had filled in all 100 circles. I wanted to shout at the monitor to sit down!! But I didn’t. I left that classroom as upset as I have ever been at anything academic. The things on that test were totally unfair—and I was fairly confident that unless I had guessed correctly, I would be lucky to escape with a C. Yes, a C!!! Lucky!!!
I was so upset, in fact, that when I got home that night to pick up Cleo, I ranted and raved about it to Mom and Dad. They were of great comfort to a distressed bear. Mom was ready to fire the prof, I think. My dislike for this class since that test has greatly intensified, shall we say.
When I returned to the class on Thursday, I was braced and ready to receive my first flunked test, if necessary. I reminded myself time and again that my value is not based on my performance, nor lack thereof. But it felt pretty rotten, just the same. There were some students sitting outside the classroom when I got there, and we commenced a discussion of the test. I shall leave out the colorful language that was floating around the hall, but suffice it to say I found out that I was not the only student who felt we had been tested unfairly. And as we filed into the classroom, the discussion continued. I found out there are methods of handling tests of this nature such as the “Eeny Meeny Miney Moe” method or the “Choose the one that hasn’t been used in a while” method. Both of these methods weren’t ones I had utilized, but I would venture to say that my results couldn’t have been much worse if I had. One girl said she was so upset by the test that she couldn’t even go to her next class—she just went home. We all agreed that for this test, the teacher was absolutely irrelevant. We may as well have spent our class time at home, reading and memorizing the book.
To make matters worse, we didn’t even get our tests back that day because “another student hadn’t taken his test yet.” The prof did say, however, that before we have heart attacks, we should know that she curved our grades by 12 points. (Well, thank goodness for that!) One lady asked her what the class average was. It turns out that the class average was a 60% before the curve--well, no surprise here. Someone else asked if anyone had gotten an A. One person got an A—after the curve, she said. The highest grade was a 78 before the curve, a 90 after. Although we didn’t get our tests back, she said she had posted our grades on Blackboard. So after class, I headed for the library to check my grade.
I could have wept with relief when I saw the 90 posted under my name. I could hardly believe it, that as stupid as I felt while taking that test, I had actually managed to come out with the highest grade at a 78, mind you. I can’t imagine how much worse the others felt. I will just say that it is NO FUN to take a test when you feel like you literally don’t know any more than half the answers, at best. I know I got some lucky guesses—there was no way that I knew even 78 of those answers.
Since I probably will never be asked for my advice on what makes a good class and/or professor, I'll just seize this opportunity to share what I think about the topic in general:
Kris's List of Advice for Professors
1. There is absolutely no honor or merit in testing students on trivial details. It is impossible to memorize a textbook, and thus, the focus of both the teacher and the students should be on the IMPORTANT things of the class that will carry over to a life career. Trivial details belong on tests as bonus points only!
2. A test should not be comprised of anything that has not at least been mentioned in class. If there isn’t enough class time to mention the information, then it isn’t important enough to be tested on.
3. A teacher cannot teach effectively by merely reading Power Point slides to the class and telling the class to “read the textbook.” I am paying some pretty hefty tuition to be taught something. So teach me.
4. The textbook should be used as a resource for clarification or for more in-depth understanding. It should not be used as a substitute for obtaining information the teacher should be giving.
5. Do not threaten me with “pop quizzes.” It does nothing more than cause me undue stress, and stress is something I have plenty of without adding pop quizzes. Tell me what is expected of me and when. If you want to quiz me on something—fine. Just tell me in advance when it is going to be so that I can ration my time to appropriately prepare for it.
6. Keep in mind, Professor Dear, that your class is not my only class—nor is it the climax of my education. In most cases, it is merely a means to an end. Do not add “busy work” just because you lump me into a class of students that has nothing better to do than to drink and party. If your assignments do not contribute to my future career, don’t waste my valuable time with it.
7. Do not play on or exploit my weaknesses by asking tricky questions or giving options on tests such as “None of the above,” or “All of the above, etc.”
8. Remember that relationships with your students are important too. It does not hurt you to attempt, at the very least, to learn their names.
9. If I email you a question about something class-related, the least you can do is send me a prompt response.
10. I feel like I need ten things on my list to keep it tidy, but I haven’t come up with the tenth one yet. At any rate, someone who is merely skimming this list will never notice.
posted by Kris at 2/26/2006 10:30:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home