Exam Corrections

[doc700]

Some of the classes in my department offer the test twice in a row.  First hour the students take the exam alone and turn it in (like a typical exam).  Then they get a fresh copy of the exam and complete it in groups of 3-4.   The final grade assigned is the average of the group and individual grades.

This does generate more grading but since the second round is in a group it doesn't generate 2x the amount of grading.  There are some more logistical challenges as you need a 2 hour block for the exam which is longer than a traditional class period and some method of assigning groups.  Apparently the students really, really like this method -- while the material is still fresh they can discuss it with their classmates and usually the group grades are very high.  I'm in the sciences so its super fast to grade a completely correct exam.  The time sink is when their answers are wrong but they have some correct work and you need to figure out where they went wrong/how much partial credit to give. So in the end the students discuss the material, feel better walking out of the room and theres not a huge additional grading load.

I've never done this but its another strategy that has seemed to work well in some settings?

[kaysixteen]

I have done this in hs, and perhaps once or twice in a college class.  It would be in a language class, owing to my mastery learning philosophy for language classes, as I cannot just let the ignorance continue, and move on to the next topic, whilst significant numbers of students have demonstrated that they do not yet understand the last one.   

[dr_evil]

I usually don't because students would just copy off of someone who got the question correct, but I did recently. So many students did poorly, yet others did very well - bimodal distribution. I packaged it as a review (since the final will be cumulative) to encourage students to do it and told them that they not only had to identify the correct answer, but write out why it was correct. I haven't graded them yet; however, it looks like only about half took advantage of the opportunity.

[the_geneticist]

I did this once.  It was a smallish class, the exam was too long (my fault as a new instructor).
It was so much work for me and the students who really needed the boost didn't do it.  Never again!  Now I just err on the side of writing shorter exams.

[Puget]

I don't, but I give them the option to take a "second chance" exam, covering the same material but with all new questions, during the final exam block (my final is not cumulative, just a normal length 3rd exam) to replace one of their first two exam grades. They have to meet with me to discuss study strategies and what they will do differently if they want to do this. About 10-15% of the class takes me up on it, and I'd say it really helps about half of them, and the other half fail to improve much or even do worse. Mostly, it helps highly test anxious students relax a bit knowing they have a back up plan, and saves me from having to deal with make-up exams for students who get sick/have a family emergency/sleep through their alarm/insert whatever other thing on an exam day-- they just take the second chance exam during finals. Best of all since it's an option for everyone, I don't have to make any decisions about who is worthy of a make-up exam, or listen to their pleading. Same with dropping to two lowest scores on low-stakes assignments.

[Cheerful]

No, I have not and don't envision ever doing so.

[Biologist_]

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I always do exam corrections in my upper-level undergrad classes. Originally it was a way to bump grades up when I wrote a harder exam than I intended. Now, I just plan on it from the outset. I don't tell the students about it until I hand back the first midterm.

[kaysixteen]

Some sort of exam corrections pedagogy is a very useful tool in mastery-based classes such as languages, where the prof does need to (reasonably) ensure that the students, ahem, know the material before moving on.   The amount of this I do in college classes is of course much less than hs or esp jrhs, but it is often a necessary thing, nonetheless.