Don't Play Games with you Students on Quizzes
Test should be designed to find out what the students know, not to see if you are more clever than your students. I never design questions to trip up my students. Sometimes during a quiz a student may ask..."is this a trick question". My response is always..." it may be a tricky question but it's not a trick question". Tricky eludes to the idea that there may be a subtle aspect to the answer, but the question is not design to trick someone into the wrong answer.
Hi Mia - Thannks for your post to the forum. i could not have said it better myself! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Completely agree with Gerry, the problem is that students seem to think that any question that requires you to read it carefully is a trick question. Plus, I encourage my students to learn and use the knowledge on a daily basis. It is not just about passing an exam and getting a good grade, it is also about being able to transfer the knowledge to the “real life situationâ€.
It's very encouraging to note that others feel as I do that an exam does not have to be "sneaky" with trick questions. How many of us have reconsidered our answers on a test because we "imagined" that there was something in the particular question that was not quite straight forward.
This is so true, I have found over the years to do rounds of prep national questions and set class rules. 1. Every student reads their question out loud. 2. No one is to blurt out the answer so they can concentrate on the answers
3. If they miss just say "try again" and if they get it right a good positive reply.
I have realized that not all students have good reading skills,it helped me understand their thought process.Sometimes I'll read the question and they have to answer, this helps to show them how important it is to pay attention, and that "not" is a very important word in a question.
I have occasionally run into an instructor who had the "Me against them" mentality. Usually they do not teach for long!
As a student I hated instructors trying to be "clever". It made me as a student think that the instructor didnt have me at the center of his teaching goal. The goal is the student to learn not make him/her feel dumb
I TOTALY AGREE, ALSO DONT ACT LIKE A TEST IS GOING TO BE HARD BECAUSE THEY MISBEHAVE OR TO PUNISH
When you use a trick question students start thinking all the questions are trick. They start missing questions that know the answer to.
The problem is that students seem to think that any question that requires you to read it carefully is a trick question. I always advise my student to RTFQC. (Read the Full Question Carefully). I tell them that taking the time to read it carefully prevents "self-fulfilling prophecies" where they see what they expect to see, rather than what is there.
Mike's statement is the truest of any statementss that I have read on these forums.
I like having the studetns design two questions each on the material being presented. I then cull through the questions and design a current quiz in the latest language to assess the thought process in answering some of these well worded questions. Sometimes I only receive a few questions so I'm still building a base of questions and answers.
I agree with that completely. We want to set up our students to be successful and give them positive encouragement. Quizzes should indicate to a student how prepared they are, or are not for the major exam
I also agree, all students should have the opportunity to earn a 100% on their tests, an notice I used the word "earn". When given tricky questions, that doesn't really show you the full potential that the students are capable of accomplishing being given "fair" questions to answer.
yeah, I agree with that. I think it's important to throw a question or two at a student that can only be answered properly if they've given the subject matter some thought.
But it's just downright rude to try and throw a student off track
