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Some Guidelines from UVA's Teaching Resource Center

Finding Out What Students Know

1-27-99: The following guidelines are reworded and adapted from Teaching at the University of Virginia, a 1991 handbook edited by Marva A. Barnett and Marjorie S. Lindner.*

Directions: For each guideline you agree with, consider how it affects the teaching and testing in one of your courses. You might want to open a word processor to copy and paste and add your own notes.

bulletNot every objective is tested best by tests during one class period.
bulletDiversified ways of detecting students' learning exercise various forms of intelligence.
bulletExams should be written from topics covered in class.
bulletPoint values on exam items should reflect the value of the concept tested.
bulletStudents should be told before a test or exam which material to emphasize in their preparation.
bulletFor essay items, students should be told the length and direction of the expected answer, plus the weight or time to spend writing.
bulletStudents should receive extra points or a portion of the alloted points for an essay answer if they jot an outline with their answer.
bulletTime specified for an essay answer should include an extra 5 minutes for students to think and plan.
bulletThe scoring key for each essay question should be made before the review session for the test and specify weights given for relevant content, reasoning or application of course concepts, and organization and style.
bulletEssay answers should be scored "blind"--without student identity being known to the grader.
bulletSample several answers to each essay question to validate or to revise the scoring guide before actually scoring essay answers.
bulletScore question by question rather than student by student.
bulletShuffle papers before scoring the next essay.
bulletObjective test items should parallel course objectives and the distribution of course topics.
bulletA colleague should review test items for difficulty, clarity, relevance to course goals, and scoring pattern.

* This adaptation first appeared in Teaching Network News 3.3 [Nov.] 1994:2.

See also Test Types.

 

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