To Guess or Not to Guess : Reflections on the Multiple-Choice Testing Paradigm
So, this Tuesday I wrote a midterm for my Abnormal Psych Class. Now, I know I always say I haven't studied for my midterms, but what generally mean is I haven't studied enough. I'll usually take some time the day before an exam and review the class notes and skim through the chapters covered. It only takes me a few hours, but I at least put in some effort.
This last test, however, I didn't study for at all. I'd been to once class since the last midterm, hadn't even printed out the lecture notes, and hadn't even cracked the textbook open. The night before the test, I figured I had two options:
1)Spend the next 8 hours cramming and stressing out
or
2)Say the hell with it, accept the fact that I was going to do horrible on this test, and just write the extra credit essay we have the option of completing to replace one of our midterm marks.
I, of course, chose option 2. Not only did this allow me to avoid an all-nighter, I thought it would provide me an interesting opportunity - namely, to see just how useless the multiple choice test format is.
So, I went into the exam armed with nothing but my natural deductive reasoning skills and a background in other Psych courses whose material somewhat overlapped this course.
I got 77%. The class average was 71%. The mark I got on the last exam in that class, that I did actually put some effort into was 66%.
Sigh. Isn't it nice to know putting all that effort and time into your University education is worth it?
So, this Tuesday I wrote a midterm for my Abnormal Psych Class. Now, I know I always say I haven't studied for my midterms, but what generally mean is I haven't studied enough. I'll usually take some time the day before an exam and review the class notes and skim through the chapters covered. It only takes me a few hours, but I at least put in some effort.
This last test, however, I didn't study for at all. I'd been to once class since the last midterm, hadn't even printed out the lecture notes, and hadn't even cracked the textbook open. The night before the test, I figured I had two options:
1)Spend the next 8 hours cramming and stressing out
or
2)Say the hell with it, accept the fact that I was going to do horrible on this test, and just write the extra credit essay we have the option of completing to replace one of our midterm marks.
I, of course, chose option 2. Not only did this allow me to avoid an all-nighter, I thought it would provide me an interesting opportunity - namely, to see just how useless the multiple choice test format is.
So, I went into the exam armed with nothing but my natural deductive reasoning skills and a background in other Psych courses whose material somewhat overlapped this course.
I got 77%. The class average was 71%. The mark I got on the last exam in that class, that I did actually put some effort into was 66%.
Sigh. Isn't it nice to know putting all that effort and time into your University education is worth it?
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
mairead:
*clappy* very good work on that exam. So does this mean you aren't going to write that extra paper? Does that mean less stress for Cirdt? I'm all about the reduced stress thing right now. Especially since I seem to have developed that 12 second goldfish attention span thing. Oh ice cream!
carla:
That's sweet. I like overlapping material sometimes. I haven't gotten the mark for the one I wrote Wednesday back yet, but I've a sneaking suspicion I'll have done fairly well for that reason.