Stuart said: "To put this another way, why is randomizing questions a good thing? My hunch is that if students benefit by seeing connections among questions, then that is a good thing!"
I agree (without much direct evidence, I am aware). When I give cumulative exams the mean is almost always lower than the exam scores taken before so making it even lower by reordering the questions makes me a bit uneasy. Besides, I do see exams as a teaching exercise as much as an evaluation. Something that gets them to make the connections seems to me to be a benefit - I WANT them to be making those connections. I wonder if by placing the questions in "random" order (huh?) that we are not actually contributing to them making incorrect connections based on what is brought to mind by the earlier and surrounding questions. Honestly, on some exams I actually note the beginning of each chapter's material and encourage them to use the surrounding questions to think back to their study place and related cues, etc. I'm not sure why we would want to purposely lower scores- why do we not see that as a form of interference? :) Perhaps I am getting soft? (My grades don't usually say so- although my Intro to Neuropsychology class this term. . . hmmmm.) Hope everyone has a great Sunday evening! Tim _______________________________ Timothy O. Shearon, PhD Professor, Department of Psychology The College of Idaho Caldwell, ID 83605 email: [email protected] teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and systems "You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." Dorothy Parker --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=17666 or send a blank email to leave-17666-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
