The mega-TrueFalse exam..
As a side-note, I want to give the example of an anthropology class I took as a undergrad. I loved the course, and the material, and deeply enjoyed and respected the professor.
But the entire course grade was based on two exams, the mid-term and the final, both True/False, 50 questions each. Sounds simple enough, eh?
False!
An average test question was phrased something along the lines of, "In 1975, Dr. John Smith from the University of Somewhere discovered the Homo Something fossil in the Great Rift Valley, which had a brain capacity of 850cc, lived approximately 2.5 million years ago, and at the time was believed to be the direct descendant of Homo Something Else which was discovered by Dr. Joe Williams in 1971, which had a brain capacity of 600cc. True or False?"
And any one of those elements in the sentence might be "false," rendering the entire sentence false. It might have been 1979 instead of 1975, or Dr. John Smith might have been from the University of Another Place instead.
Yikes!
Yikes, that is positively ghoulish, especially for an anthro class where the material tends to be so detailed and date-specific. We incorporate some True-False questioning for some culinary exams where distinguishing between correct and incorrect cooking methods needs to be reinforced, and it seems to be effective. But nothing like that Mega True-False!
That would be the time when I might want to kill myself!
Oh my - that may be the worst assessment I have ever seen! Susan
