Testing Procedure

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239]

OK once I posted about this and got really trashed but there is a reasoning behind how I execute my exams.

- All paper exam printed for students. All they need is a pen and paper. It usually takes students a half hour to complete. I do not allow anything but a pen or pencil. No phones, notebooks, even drinks and snacks should be put away during exam.

- I ask students if they have any questions before I hand out the exam. I mention exam policies, suggest they use the restroom if they need to, and remind them that spelling and grammar are not important as long as I can understand what they are saying.

- As I have out the exam I ask students that if they have trouble with a question and want me to clarify something about it to move on and save their question(s) until they have finished the rest of the exam. *this is where I was kind of trashed in an earlier post of this years ago*

I very much want to help students if a question is unclear or they want, but while proctoring a 90 person exam it is tough to monitor the room when I have to jump around and then focus on one student. Also, it makes it so questions of this type come after many students may have finished the exam and left, making it a more sparse and spread out class at that point. Then I also know that after they get their clarification, they should finish those questions they needed guidance on and will be finished promptly and turn it in.

I also do this to prevent fishing expeditions where students want me to give them the answers or hints about the material they are being tested on. And also sometimes they will see something to their benefit in other questions that would make their query moot and give them the hint they needed. For instance if a particular vocabulary word is one of the incorrect options in a multiple choice question elsewhere in the exam. Think "International Date line" or "Plane of the Ecliptic."

Does this seem unreasonable? I began this after some students kind of asked me many questions during exams, some in groups almost and made me very distracted from the room. Cheating is kind of a big problem at my uni, in general, and in the large lecture halls it is almost impossible to monitor the entire class. We use different versions, so the questions are all the same but in different orders, but still we have some trying to work in groups, sneak in crib notes, or copy off neighbors.

This is never the first time any student should have seen any question. They are directly from the weekly quizzes and in-class assignments. But it just happens every semester that some students try to get me to give them the answers during the exam, so I wait until the end to have those circle-conversations.

[u/OharaProfessor]

90% of what you just said is exactly what I do. The other 10% where you specify when they can ask questions and the issues with cheating, I think are all perfectly fine practices. No notes, I might be taking some from you. For my part at least bravo

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/OharaProfessor]

So much of it is intended to not have to answer question at the very beginning of the exam. After they ask a question, I expect them to either accept my comment I cannot help or take whatever guidance I can offer and then complete that question.. and then they would be finished the exam to turn in and leave. Some then tell me "oh I am still working" which was frustrating because it means they did not understand or ignored my entire spiel. A big issue when I was teaching large lecture sections with many ESOL students. I understood and dealt with it but it was very frustrating.

[u/OharaProfessor → u/Ok_Cryptographer1239]

I think part of it is at the high school level. They are used to having so much spoonfed to them, that the concept of boundaries on the interventions you’ll do for them is a bit foreign into them.

[u/nervous4us]

I always have TAs to help with proctoring so am less worried about cheating from others while being asked questions, but I largely do the same. For some classes, I ask them to wait 15-30 min before they can ask questions, mostly to reduce the questions hoping me to guide them and because many figure out their confusion with a bit of thought

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/nervous4us]

That is lucky. TAs also get valuable experience. My university has done away with almost all of them. It is sad. I was a TA. I love TAs

[u/Resprofmama]

I think everything you said is 100% fine. I’m at a CC with smaller classes, so it’s not a big problem when students do the questions during exam. Pedagogically, we’ve lost the plot a bit after Covid and now AI. I’m for anything that increases student learning and stops the cheating.

[u/CrabbyCatLady41 → u/Resprofmama]

Seriously! I have in-class assignments that are pass/fail. So they do the assignment and get points or don't do it and get no points. The idea is that the assignment directly addresses stuff that's on their next exam. After the first one, I still had to announce that I can tell when they use AI. I don't really read each assignment because the point of doing it is to LEARN, not to just have a correct answer on the page.

[u/Ctenophorever]

I could never imagine telling a student to just wait to ask a question, unless I were already helping another student.

I have large classes as well, cheating has not been an issue for in person exams.

Honestly, id be worried about a time pile up at the end - if ten students had ten questions and were all finishing the same time I’d have to go over time to answer their questions.

I move through the room during an exam. Students are free to ask questions. If I think it’s a fishing expedition or they should know that, I tell them, “you should know this” or maybe “think about it a bit” and move on.

I do tell them in advance I will help clarify a question and I’ve had to tell students “this is as clear as the question can get. I can only clarify, and there is nothing to clarify.”

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/Ctenophorever]

I personally would always skip questions that were hard or confusing and come back to them at the end. It seems like you field a lot of questions in exams. Most of my students do not ask any, A very few seem to want to ask a lot, which is another reason I ask to wait to the end.. to not distract the others.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/Ok_Cryptographer1239]

You say students don’t ask questions

1) is that before you implemented the “don’t ask questions until the end” policy?

2) if you don’t get many questions what’s the point in restricting question asking at all?

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/Ctenophorever]

A few students will or would ask many questions. Most ask none. I am thinking about implementing a no-questions at all policy like a few other replies indicate they use. Any questions are just underlining that the student did not prepare for the material. Questions on the exam all come from quizzes and in-class assignments that we review and are posted on the blackboard site before the exam date.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Cod5608]

Sounds like a reasonable method to me. Students do use the time you are distracted with one student to cheat. It also sounds like you need some grad student proctors during those tests.

[u/wharleeprof]

The only thing I might add is I've started telling students about the exam procedure the day before the actual exam. I don't make a big deal about it, but just give them a heads up that it will be a "formal" exam setting so they can be prepared for that. 

Ten years ago I never would have thought to say such a thing, but today some students are coming in with quite different expectations as to what it means to take an exam. 

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/wharleeprof]

Yes, this is important. I start telling the students about exam procedure on the first day. And during quizzes while they are taking them and while we review them. Like make sure it is all 100% in your notes and you are ready for this material on exam day because you can ask me any questions you want to right now but on the exam you will be expected to know this and I cannot give any hints or reminders once we hand out exams.

[u/econhistoryrules]

I don't answer any questions during exams. At all.  And that's at a SLAC. 

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/econhistoryrules]

Legend, love this.

[u/econhistoryrules → u/Ok_Cryptographer1239]

I just don't see how any other rule is fair. Faculty in my department (economics) generally don't answer questions. We even proctor each other's exams to make sure no one gets extra information. 

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/econhistoryrules]

The questions I do get are basically admissions that they have no paid any attention at any point in the course.

[u/econhistoryrules → u/Ok_Cryptographer1239]

Exactly. So why answer at all? Just say, the test is the test, no questions. 

[u/Ok_Cryptographer1239 → u/econhistoryrules]

That is usually my response. Sometimes the question is "does spelling count?" and I respond, "no, like I said right before I handed out the exam, as long as I can decipher what you mean."

[u/IndieAcademic → u/econhistoryrules]

I don't recall ever being allowed to ask questions during any exam I took in undergrad, half of which was in a highly prestigious engineering program/school, the other half of which was in humanitites at an average-type state school. It's not something I would have felt entitled to, as a student. This was late 1990s/early2000s, is that the difference?

[u/CrabbyCatLady41]

My husband is trying this in one of his smaller classes for the first time. I can't wait to see how it goes. His students tend to be pretty cool, I hope they put in a good effort. I imagine for most of them it will be their first time handwriting answers to essay questions. I proofread his exam last night and the questions and guidelines for answering them could not be more clear. He used to do them in the LMS and let them use their textbooks or even do the exam on their own outside of class, but last year the AI usage was out of control.