Document Type

Poster

Presentation Date

Fall 2020

Abstract

Exams or tests are vital part of teaching and good exams serve 4 goals [1]:

1- Help students organize their academic efforts.

2- Help students by identifying skills or topics that need more attention and mastery.

3- Help instructors recognize students mistakes and misunderstandings of topics so that they can adjust their teaching to address these issues.

4- Used as an indication of whether students are receiving the correct information.

There are many testing strategies, types of tests, and alternative testing modes, which are designed to help both instructors and students in doing a better job [1]. However, with exams comes tension and anxiety that hinder students’ performance and may prevent students from learning and passing the course.

To reduce tension and make students feel more relaxed, the following strategies are used by many instructors [1]:

1- Advise students on how to study by helping them identify important concepts and guiding them on how to take notes.

2- Let students work and study in teams since many researches have shown that students learn more when studying in groups rather than studying alone.

3- Ask students if they need help such as explaining some questions in the exam or provide other options when students perform poorly in exams.

4- Help students by providing accommodations as required and especially for students with disabilities. Giving more time on tests, reserving special room (quiet) for test, and providing alternative testing methods are some example of mostly used accommodations.

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