THE FINAL EXAM – TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I have always been frustrated by how I could better use the final examination each year.  My hourly exams throughout the semester typically go into depth about a few topics that have been covered extensively over the past few weeks.  That makes sense to me.  The results seem reasonable.  


For my classes, a final examination covers a massive amount of material, much of which has not been reviewed by the students in several months.   Students often appear unsure as to how to prepare and how to allocate their time.  Over the past 49 years, they have often arrived at the final exam ill-prepared, moaning that their preparation made them more confused and less confident.  They then leave 3 or 4 hours later mumbling that they, “Had not expected to see those questions.”  They had guessed at the topics and had guessed wrong.  Their grades suffered.  I am not sure what that proves.  What is the benefit in that?


For me, the final exam seemed a poor ending to what was often an excellent semester.  The students frequently left discouraged and I had to curve the exam heavily in order to have a legitimate distribution.  To be honest, the final exam felt like a “downer” and I didn’t like that type of conclusion for my course.


During the past two semesters, I have changed my approach to the final exam and, truthfully, I am much happier with the results.  Perhaps this proves that an old dog can figure out some new tricks.  


Now, about 10 days before the final exam, I create 25-30 final exam questions that cover the entire semester at the depth that I believe is appropriate.  Each question is designed to take between 4 minutes and 10 minutes to resolve.  Each question contains at least one variable such as a cost or a life span or an interest rate or preferred method.  If I were teaching art history, I could write a preliminary question about Raphael knowing that I could switch the question to Botticelli or Monet on the actual final.


One week before the final exam, I give all of the questions to my students and tell them that these are the questions they will face on their final exam.  I warn them very carefully that, on the actual final, I will change at least one of the variables for each question.  The question will be basically the same but some variable will be different.  Perhaps Raphael will become Botticelli.


A buyer might be turned into a seller.

A ten-year period of time might be increased to 20 years.

A loan of $100,000 might become a loan of $200,000.

A piece of equipment might become a piece of land.

An event occurring within the U.S. might be moved to a foreign country.


I told the students that they could talk with each other if they liked (I probably couldn’t stop them any way and I don’t like putting up rules that I cannot enforce).


Almost immediately, the students began to organize themselves in order to prepare.  Their study tactics were not based on trying to guess at topics or remember hundreds of pages of material, much of which might not even appear on the exam.  Now, they had to learn how to work 30 very precise and complicated problems.  They studied in groups.  They helped each other.  They talked through the problems to determine how each one should be solved.  They discussed how variables might be changed.  They gave each other encouragement and support.


They thought about the questions.  They began to understand better.


The changes I made to the questions were not easy.  The students had to think about what was different and how that affected the determination of a solution.  But, that was what they had expected.  On the actual exam, no one got all 30 correct but most of the students were able to get 80 percent or more.  I thought that was good given the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of the questions.  I still applied a very slight curve. Unfortunately, a few students made an F.  Even with the questions, their knowledge was shaky.  


What did I see as the benefits to this change?


(1) – Without a doubt, the final exam became a learning process.  I am completely convinced that almost every student learned a considerable amount through their attempts to figure out how the basic questions were to be solved.  I felt that they had gained understanding.  How could I want more than that?  It became less of a test and more of a learning exercise.  


(2) – It was a team building exercise.  There were no instructions on how to prepare.  They had to decide whether to study together or apart and, if together, how could that be organized.  I loved walking through the halls and seeing them huddled together in small or large groups working through their problems.


(3) – My feeling was that the students left the final exam with a more positive attitude towards themselves.  A great many of them managed to answer most of the questions correctly.  I don’t want my students leaving on the last day feeling defeated.  I always want a more positive outcome.


(4) – The grades on the final exam were not based on which students could best anticipate the topics to be covered.  Yes, they did have to consider how the variables would be altered but no one could say, “I studied several topics for hours and they didn’t even appear on the exam.”  I seriously wanted to reduce the gambling aspect of exam preparation.


What should you do now?  Well, if you are happy with your final exam, I wouldn’t do anything.  Experiments and evolution should occur where there is a problem.  


If you are not totally happy with the present results, do what I did:  Pick one class for the next semester and try some variation of this idea.  See what you think.  You cannot experiment purely in your head.  At some point, you have to go out and try an idea and see what results you get and whether you like those results or not.

NEVER TOO LATE TO EXPERIMENT

I am a fan of Frank Zappa’s assertion, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”  If you have followed this blog for long, you know that I am a huge proponent of teaching experimentation.  Consequently, I push the Three E’s of Teaching:  Experiment, Evaluate, and Evolve.  Follow these three steps on a regular basis and wonderful things can happen.  Always be on the lookout for a potential new innovation that you can try out just to see if it works.  Keep your eyes open and consider changes that are possible.  Awareness is a good quality to have when looking to improve as a teacher. 

We are quickly moving toward the end of another semester.  What has been your most interesting teaching experiment of these past few months?  I have long believed that every school should award prizes for the most successful teaching experiment each year.  That would both reward and encourage classroom innovation.  Maybe we could post all the winners on a website just to circulate unique ideas.

With two weeks left in the current semester, I decided to try something I had never done previously in my 48+ years as a college teacher.  I created this experiment as a mash-up of two ideas that I have long pondered with admiration.

(1) – Teaching is extremely personal as you create a relationship of some kind with each of your students.  Therefore, I have always been troubled that giving grades at the end of a semester is a completely impersonal process.  Students take final exams and then leave campus for weeks or months.  After they depart, the teacher posts a symbolic letter grade (A, B, C, etc.) that the students will access, often hundreds if not thousands of miles away.  There is a disconnect (both in time and space) that I do not like.  No words are shared between teacher and student.  No encouragement or suggestions are conveyed.  There is not even eye contact. 

My younger son attended Sarah Lawrence College (outside of NYC) nearly 20 years ago.  At least at that time, students did not receive letter grades from their teachers.  Grades were posted with the Registrar but never conveyed to students unless they explicitly asked to see them.  Instead, teachers authored a letter to each student describing the work the student had done over the course of the semester—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The teacher was supposed to work on this letter throughout the semester as a basis for an ongoing assessment of the student’s entire body of work.  I liked that approach because it did not boil an entire semester down to a single letter grade.  The student was given both constructive criticism and positive reinforcement.  The teacher reflected on the student’s work, its potential and its quality.

I started my own experiment last week by trying to make the grading process in my classes more personal.

(2) – One of the most popular blog postings that I ever wrote was titled, “What the Catcher Tells the Pitcher.”  It describes a conversation between Brad Ausmus, a long-time major league baseball catcher, and Terry Gross on her NPR radio program, Fresh Air.   

At one point, Gross asked her guess what a baseball catcher tells a pitcher when he goes out to the mound.  Ausmus’s response has stayed with me since the day I first heard the interview in 2011.  “I always had only one goal in mind when I went out to talk with the pitcher. When I left him, I wanted the pitcher to absolutely believe that he was capable of getting out of the situation that he was facing. If he didn’t believe he was capable of taking care of the problem, we didn’t have much chance.”

We are getting to the end of the semester.  If one of my students doesn’t believe he or she is capable of improving, we don’t have much of a chance.  A positive but realistic attitude is essential for success in almost any endeavor and that can slip away here at the end.  No improvement will ever happen if the student gives up.

I wanted to do something dealing with a student’s grade that seemed more personal but also encouraged the student to do better.  I wanted to combine Sarah Lawrence with Brad Ausmus.

The Experiment:  With about two weeks left in the semester, I wrote individual emails to each of the 39 students in my introductory courses this semester.  They are all first-year students or sophomores.  They have worked hard this semester and their test averages at the moment range from 63.0 to 99.0 with an average of roughly 81.

The 39 emails probably took me a total of about 4 or 5 hours.  (At 4 hours, that means that I am writing each email at an average pace of under seven minutes.)  I did not make the emails long, about 5 to 8 lines each.  But, in that time, I told each person some of my thoughts that had stood out about their work this semester—their attitude, their preparation, their interest in the subject matter, their willingness to engage in class, etc.  I tried to touch on the important stuff.  With two weeks left in the semester, I did not see much benefit in describing what they had done during the semester that left me frustrated or exasperated. 

I computed each overall test average at that point in the semester and then discussed what it would take to pull that average up on the final examination.  For example:  “You have a 76.1 average on our three tests so far this semester.  If you want more than a solid C, you are going to have to show me what you have learned.  Your work at times this semester has been outstanding but your preparation has been wildly inconsistent.  With a solid B on the final exam, you should make either a B- or a B for the course.  From what I have seen, you are more than capable of a solid B.  But you are the one who has to make that happen.  You won’t get there by accident.  Get to work and let’s get it done.  Be consistently good not just occasionally good.  Let me know if I can be of help.”

I do think such notes can have a potential positive effect on the remainder of the semester:

(1) – The student knows that I know who they are.  They are not some invisible spirit that blends into the woodwork.  I want them to realize that I know them as a real person and not just as a student ID number.

(2) – They are reminded of the precise grade they have earned to date.  It is not, “You have a high C” or “You have about a B.”  I want them to know their exact grade.  I want that to be absolutely real rather than something vague.  

(3) – I want them to realize that an improved grade is still very much possible but it won’t happen by luck.  They will have to earn it.  A lot of teachers promise to be tough but really aren’t.  I am not Santa Claus.

(4) – I ended every note with, “Let me know if I can be of help.”  I wanted the students to understand that we are in this course together.  It is not a “me versus them” situation.  I am on their side and want them to do well.  I want them to know that I am available for help and willing to help.  They are not in this battle alone.

Okay, so I invested 4 hours of my life writing 39 emails to my current students.  Was it a good use of my time?  As far as improved results, that remains to be seen, but I was so glad that I used my four hours that way.  The messages felt personal to me and reminded me that I was dealing with real people who have real lives and real futures.  Maybe the benefit was always intended for me and my attitude.

I tried to make the achievement of a particular grade more personal to the students and I hope that they were able to see that their grade, no matter how poor it is at the moment, could still be improved by a rather modest increase in the level of work on the final.  I want them to fight until the end.  It is just a guess (or maybe a hope) but I will be surprised if some of the students don’t kick their work up into a higher gear and successfully improve their average here at the end of the semester.  That was the goal.

That is an experiment I tried at the end of the fall semester in 2019.  I wanted to do something different.  I like trying something different.  What experiment are you going to try at the end of the semester just to see what might happen?  Remember what Frank Zappa said, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”