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[prospectivebum]

It is severely depressing how much I studied for that damn chem test because I have barely any chance of achieving a 55% on that test. and its not curved. His tests make no sense. He doesn't write his questions clearly...or in such a way that we could interpret them all in the 50 minute time frame that he gives us

Comments

[mcsarah]

Something I've learned after two years of college exams is that a bad grade is never because of a "poorly written" test. Here's why:

The exams are either written that way purposefully or not. If they are, then it's to examine your reasoning and logic skills in addition to the course material. That's fair.

And if they're not written equivocally on purpose, don't just guess and fume about it. Ask the TA or professor. Odds are, other people are struggling with the same ambivalent language, so always ask questions. But the first key is establishing if the questions can really be decoded logically.

As a safeguard, I always mark written explanations to myself on a separate sheet or in the booklet, itself (if possible) so I remember what my logic was and can better defend my answers later--especially if I believe my answer will be marked incorrect but know it's the best answer, anyway.

Garg. I miss school, I think.

[prospectivebum]

The problem with the test was that while each problem could be logically reasoned out, it couldn't be done in the amount of time provided. He didn't cover a lot of the stuff as much as he could have in order for us to have reasoned those things out so well. As for writing explanations on seperate sheets of paper we aren't allowed to have a seperate sheet. I just mark all over the test...which did actually help get me some partial credit I think. Basically everybody did poorly on that test and the TA's have acknowledged that, but I don't think anything will be done about it. The TA's in fact agree that the test results don't reflect what we actually do know, and that it could probably have been written better.