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.

Thoughts on Making Testing a Better Process – Part Two – The Final Examination

Before Beginning.  I attempt to read an hour each day.  I believe it is good for the mind to see and hear words formed into interesting sentences and insightful paragraphs.  In addition, I collect words that I read if I am not certain of the meaning.  I have 110 on that list so far in 2019.  My favorite new word for 2019 is “rodomontade” which means boastful or inflated talk or behavior.

Occasionally, as I read, something will strike me as pertaining to teaching, often in some indirect manner.  That happened this morning as I listened to, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, by Kate Morton.  A renowned cellist recalls her emotions as she walked on stage to play.

     “Live performance is the precipice on which fear, anticipation, and joy met.  A unique     experience 

       shared between audience and performer.”

To me, that sounds similar to how I feel each day as I walk the 50 paces or so from my office to my classroom.  Even after 48 years, it remains the precipice on which my fear, anticipation, and joy all meet.  Next time you walk to your classroom, search your own head to see if you have those three emotions in relatively equal proportions.  If not, maybe that is one place you can start your expedition toward becoming a better teacher.  Perhaps, the first step to improvement is in your head.

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Blog Posting.  I have written almost obsessively over the years about the need to experiment as a required step for improved teaching.  Because your semester probably ended in the last few weeks, take a moment to count how many teaching experiments you tried and then judge how they worked.  Will you do some of them again in the fall?  How will you modify them before you try again?

In designing experiments, I like to focus on aspects of my course that are not going as well as I would like.  This semester, I decided to play around with the final examination—how could I use it to help my students better learn and understand.  It should not be just a torture device.

In my classes, we cover a lot of material over several months and then I give a four-hour final exam.  My complaint has always been that the students try to cover everything during their review sessions and often wind up at the mercy of studying the right topic.  They prepare so randomly that they often scramble up the knowledge in their heads rather than organize it.  For years, I have allowed them to bring in 4-6 sheets of notes to the final exam.  In that way, they do not need to attempt to cram all that material into their memory.  They read the questions and then consult their notes before working to solve the problem.

Nevertheless, there is still a “surprise” element in this approach.  In their note taking, students must anticipate what I will cover.  The grade difference between a student who guesses correctly and one who does not can be staggering.  That bothers me a bit.  I want them to use their study time to increase their understanding and then show that understanding to me.  Their grade should not be based on the luck of guessing my topical coverage.

This semester I tried something new.  I am not sure this would work in every course but some variation could work in many classes.  I walked in to class one week before the final examination and gave out 27 questions that I believed should be the foundation for our entire semester.  I felt these questions should each take between 3 minutes and 8-10 minutes to work.  I told the students that I was going to give them those questions as their final examination.  However, for each question, I would change one or more of the included variables.

--A monetary cost might be higher or lower.

--An interest rate might be changed.

--Expected revenue could be altered.

 --The number of years involved could be different.

The final exam would be those 27 basic questions but they would each have different variables.  The students did not believe me at first.  It seemed too easy.  They quickly came to see that the questions were all complicated.  But they had a week to work them and consider what I might change.  I eliminated the topical surprise element.  My parting words to them were key, “If you truly understand how to work these 27 questions, then you should get them all correct and will deserve to make 100.”

What happened?   I actually wrote 31 problems because I changed the variables in four questions twice.  Most of the students stayed for at least 3 ½ hours.  23 of my students made roughly the same on the final exam as they did in the course as a whole (a difference of 3 points are less).  Only 11 of the students made a lot less on the final exam than their grades for the course (the final exam was more than 3 points less than their overall averages).  For whatever reason, they did not enough benefit from having the questions in advance.  Only 13 of the students made a grade on the final exam that was much higher than their course grade (the final exam was more than 3 points higher than their overall averages.)   In truth, grades were affected less than I had expected.  Good students seemed to get good grades and struggling students seemed to get poorer grades.  Nevertheless, I felt the purpose of the final exam had been changed for me.  I believe most of the students used their time to really try to learn the material because they had a version of the actual questions.  I boiled the entire final exam experience for them down to two challenges:

“(1) – Can you work this question?

 “(2) – Can you still work this question if I change a few of the variables?

“Don’t try to relearn the entire semester.  Make sure you can work and understand these 27 questions.”

Added Benefit.  I told the students that they could work together before the final exam.  Because they had the questions in hand, they immediately began to create group sessions for the class where they studied together for hours to work those 27 questions.  Several students told me personally how much they had enjoyed studying with their fellow students to get ready for the final exam.  One wrote to me, “I have truly enjoyed being in your class, and while it was often intimidating, I know that I grew as both a student and a person this past semester. Also, I met a ton of people in the class and made more friends than I could have ever expected; the dynamic of the class truly encourages people to work together and collaborate, which is oftentimes hard to find."  I had never gotten messages like these before after a final exam.  “…made more friends than I could have ever expected.”  That alone makes me interested in trying it again next fall.

If you want to improve, you have to experiment.  Focus on something in your class that you think could use some work.  Try to do it differently.  Observe how it goes.

Offer.  I realize that most of my readers do not teach accounting but I will make this offer anyway.  If you will send a note to Jhoyle@richmond.edu, I will send you the 27 questions that I presented to the students in advance of the final exam and the 31 questions that I actually used on the final exam.  It might help you think about how you could do something similar.