T.-S. Lim wrote on 12/26/99 3:29 PM:
>I don't like take-home exams at all. It's very hard (almost impossible) to
>ensure that each student does the exam alone. It's true even for graduate
>students (I'm speaking from my own personal experiences).
I was stunned as well several years ago to hear of graduate students
having parties on exam day to share the effort on a take home exam. The
professor discovered it by accident, happened to grade two such exams one
after the other and noted all the similar responses. He then compared all
the wrong answers and noted the number of identical wrong answers exceed
chance.
The solution another teacher of statistics uses for testing graduate
students to maintain test difficulty, yet allow flexibility in taking the
test: He reserves a classroom for the entire day and students may work on
the test at any time during that day, may not remove any materials they
take into the test until they are finished, though they may come and go
as needed for other obligations.
Paul
