tests

I have been thinking about grades lately and I am pretty sure they are dumb. The main problem is that it seems that many many many people (politicians, parents, students, administrators, some other faculty, and zombies) think that the grade is the THE THING to worry about. Really, it is just a pale representation of the real thing. This brings me to the allegory of the cave. I know you remember this when you read Plato's The Republic, right? Here is a picture that explains the whole thing: I don't know where this image came from, it was on a boat load of other websites, none looked like…

I overheard this high school student complaining about a teacher. Here is essentially what she said (about a class her friend is in): "This teacher is crazy. He said we have a test the next day and he gave them a study guide. But he didn't give the answers to the study guide. My friend and her mom stayed up till midnight looking up the answers on google." I am pretty sure this was regarding a math class. So, what is the problem? I think there are a couple, but it mainly has to do with the nature of assessment. What is the point of assessing if students know (memorize temporarily) stuff…

The Teaching Professor has a short note about students cramming for exams. The article talks about how you should deal with students cramming for exams. It includes the correct answer: you shouldn't do anything accept maybe change your tests. What is the purpose of a test? It is some way to evaluate what a student has mastered. If a student can "master" something by spending a couple of hours right before the exam, is it really worth mastering? The real problem is that many tests seem to focus on recall type information. These are (in my humble opinion) mostly pointless. What does it…

There are many brain fitness software products available these days so when I was offered a copy of Core Learning's program Mind Builder, I agreed to check it out. It offers a series of test questions similar to America's SAT, while Mind Builder Pro is a fuller package that also incorporates IQ, career and aptitude tests intended to be "fun mental exercises." Unlike some similarly-marketed software there were no unproven claims of preventing age-related cognitive decline or improving processing speed. There were vague promises like "get smart, stay smart" and "build brain power" - whatever…