Modified 11 Mar 03 0912 hrs.
Study the “Visual Summary” for each chapter very carefully.
Study the “Chapter Review” for each very chapter.
Read the titles of sections and subsections in each chapter.
I may ask general questions related to your lab projects, such as the general purpose, and generally how you do certain tasks. I will not ask specific questions about the contents of a menu or about obscure options.
Material presented in class is fair game for testing even if it is not in the text. I prefer to ask questions on concepts and procedures. I may also ask practical questions. If I spend 15 minutes on a particular topic in class, or I have created a special presentation slide show or handout, there is a good chance I have also generated exam questions on those topics.
I prefer to test on concepts, and I prefer to draw upon recall memory rather than recognition memory. I will not intentionally ask trick questions. I prefer to have a mixture of questions that require different levels of abstract reasoning.
Ideally, freshman and sophomore level exams have questions of varying levels of abstraction.
| Bloom's Level | Percentage of text value |
| 5 & 6 | 5% |
| 3 & 4 | 10% |
| 2 | 15% |
| 1 | 70% |
A sample exam for each chapter from a previous term is available for
downloading. The purpose of these is to give you an idea of how I word
questions.
I like to ask questions that cause you to compare ideas or things. What concept or property is present in one idea or thing which is absent in other ideas or things. What makes a particular idea or thing special or different from all other concepts or ideas covered by the text or in lecture? What concepts or properties are present in all ideas or things of a particular category?
What makes something work? What is the basic principle of operation? What are advantages? What are disadvantages? When would you want to use a particular approach? When would you want to not use a particular approach?
For multiple choice questions, I have created a question bank for each chapter. (I do not use publisher test banks.) I randomly choose questions and randomly permute choices.
If I tell you in class you need to remember a particular list, that means it is a key idea, and probably means I have a short answer or list question in my test bank on that list.
For each chapter, an exams will have 10 multiple choice questions (2 points each), and a few short answer questions (4 points each). Exams may also include a short essay (7 points). Essay questions will be announced in advance. The total number of points per exam will vary.
Multiple Choice Questions:
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2 questions will be motivated by the Chapter Review multiple choice questions. |
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2 questions will be motivated by the Chapter Review matching questions. |
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2 questions will be motivated by the Chapter Review open-ended questions. |
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2 questions will be motivated by the Visual Summary. |
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2 questions will be drawn from lecture. |
On the final exam, all questions will be of equal weight. The final exam will be 100 questions of both multiple choice and short answer type.
I generate several versions for each class.