Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!deimos!eecea!gordon
From: gordon@eecea.eece.ksu.edu (Dwight Gordon)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Exam Files
Message-ID: <547@eecea.eece.ksu.edu>
Date: 3 Feb 89 03:14:47 GMT
References: <1461@trantor.harris-atd.com> <19554@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <27541@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <15993@joyce.istc.sri.com> <429@laic.UUCP> <19810@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <9388@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: gordon@eecea.UUCP (Dwight Gordon)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Kansas State University, Manhattan
Lines: 25

In article <9388@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> timlee@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP writes:
>In article <19810@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> matloff@iris.ucdavis.edu writes:
>> . . .
>>(it's really quite amazing how many professors will give essentially the
>>same exam year after year, at least in terms of general content).  For
>
>Not just fraternities...  many other student groups maintain exam files.
>Perhaps the visibility of some such files ensures that instructors
>don't give the same question (or variation with different numbers) twice.
  I have taught classes where I handed out my key for an hourly to the class,
and then repeated the question on the final examination.  Some students
learn from their past mistakes and work through the key for the hourly.  Others
just don't seem to care.  I tend to get a "normal" distribution of grades
on such problems (on the final).  
  In fact, one time I gave the final as open book/note/etc.  One of the
students raised his (it was a "he") during the final.  He had a copy of my
key with his notes (acceptable) sitting next to his final examination paper.
He pointed at the two and asked if he was "missing something."  I told him
"no."  He looked at me as if I were crazy and did the problem.  (I still
had pretty-much a "normal" distribution of grades on that problem!)

Dwight W. Gordon         |   913-532-5600    |   gordon@eecea.eece.ksu.edu
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department |     dwgordon@ksuvm.bitnet
Kansas State University - Durland Hall       | rutgers!ksuvax1!eecea!gordon
Manhattan, KS 66506      | {pyramid,ucsd}!ncr-sd!ncrwic!ksuvax1!eecea!gordon