Have you ever wanted to pull your hair out during an exam because two answer choices seem to mean exactly the same thing? Have you ever left an exam wondering where in the world your professor came up with a question?
Maybe you just didn't hit the books hard enough. Then again, maybe other students went home equally frustrated and bewildered.
You might never find out -- but your professor can.
Every Scantron exam processed by Schreyer's Testing Services results in an assessment that is e-mailed to the course instructor, Ralph Locklin, senior measurement specialist for the service, said.
The assessment, known as an Item Analysis, includes several statistics that faculty should review in order to evaluate their exam and pinpoint potentially problematic questions.
Seeing that many students answered a question incorrectly, especially the top third of students in the class, can alert instructors that a particular question may have been keyed incorrectly, wasn't covered in class or in the text, used confusing language or had overlapping responses. Then, professors can choose to correct the grades of their students or change the question for the next semester.
If test makers do not review an item analysis, then students can be hurt and the same ineffective or confusing questions can be used semester after semester.
Unfortunately, it's possible for instructors to completely disregard these assessments. Schreyer's Testing Services has no way to determine if a professor studies the evaluation, makes changes or even opens the e-mail in which it's contained.
Locklin said that confusion about statistics or not wanting to look at numbers prevents some faculty members from fully utilizing the analysis.
"It's an opportunity to summarize information in a way that encourages reflective teaching and testing," Locklin said.
That's where you enter the picture. You can ask your professor if they have reviewed an assessment or if you can review it yourself.
They can say no, but they might say yes. Either way, you will be sending them the message that you are concerned about your grades and about understanding why particular answers are correct.
We all also know how unclear quiz and midterm questions have a tendency to reappear as final exam questions and inflict double the harm on our grades. Most importantly, the results can be used to create dialogue between faculty and students -- two groups that can seem a world apart. Many times I have sat in the back of a class and heard students grumbling under their breaths in frustration while instructors happily lectured on, completely unaware of exactly how many people they were losing.
Some students are very uncomfortable stopping lecture and asking questions in a huge class. In fact, one of my professors commonly asks students to discreetly provide thumbs up or down to indicate their understanding of the material and readiness to move on to the next topic.
In a way, these assessments can give teachers the thumps up or down on students' comprehension of material and on the effectiveness of their testing style -- without waiting until end-of-semester evaluations.
Like anybody else, faculty members are human. Coding a wrong answer on a key or providing similar answer choices is a just a mistake. Failing to use tools that catch mistakes and enhance the learning environment -- that is a disservice to students.
