Exam week at school in January is always interesting. At the end of the first semester these last few years, I give full length exams (90 minutes) to the entirety of the underclassmen. For the second semester, I usually have freshmen and a mix of juniors and seniors1; exam week in late May or early June is a lot less stressful as a consequence.
For both freshmen (Old Testament) and sophomores (Sacraments), it is a mix of multiple choice, matching, and an assortment of written responses (short answer and essay questions). The multiple choice is straight forward - four choices, choose the best answer. I use the term “best” intentionally because sometimes you will have increasing degrees of correctness. This is where you get an “All of the Above” or a “Both A and B” option. It isn’t something I abuse, but much like a pass-heavy football team running occasionally, I use it sparingly just to keep my students honest and paying attention.
Short answer and essays are also pretty direct. The questions are always written in a way to guide them where they need to go. At this point in their academic lives, especially with theology as a subject, I am not as interested in their philosophical pondering as I am in their understanding what it is we are doing. None of the questions are open-ended in a way they will be when they come through my class in junior or senior year.
My favorite part of any test is the matching. I do vocabulary in class because there are certain terms that need to stay in front of them all the time. “Form”, “matter”, “sacramentals”, and so forth with the sophomores. Freshmen have a lot of people to know since it is the Old Testament. When they take a test (or this exam), the vocabulary shows up as a matching section. The title of this post always shows up in the directions for that section regarding the word bank.
The kids will complain.
I believe it is a misguided complaint.
If there are 15 definitions but 16 terms in the word bank, at least one will not be used, but there is also the possibility that one or two others could be used multiple times. This is actually a benefit to the test taker.
Here’s why: it removes the element of attempting to force-fit a pattern into the matching. Often when there is a perfect amount of matches and terms, if one is wrong, then by definition something else will also be wrong, because each term is used only once. More than once/not at all takes that out of the equation altogether.
Now, it does require the student to know what they are looking at (because STUDYING!), but it eliminates the potential for a negative cascade - if A goes here and B goes there, then C has to go here and D has to go there. If A is the correct choice for all 12 definitions, then A is the correct choice. Each definition thusly exists in a vacuum.
Which is the way it should be. But I will add, I am glad exam week is nearly over. Monday begins a new semester and new courses. I get to be fresh every few months, so we’ll be getting to those in the next few days.
Upperclassmen get either some kind of term paper or a project/presentation to complete rather than a full-blow exam.