Subject Line: Unit 1 Test Feedback

Hi everyone,

Here’s some feedback on the first Unit Test:

• median grade was ____ (i.e., half the class received ____ or higher /15)
• ____% of the class received a passing grade (____or higher /15)
• ____% of the class received an A (___ or higher /15)

These stats are similar to the in-class midterm exam from last year (median grade of ___, ____% passed, _____% received an A). So overall, this was a solid trial run! But of course there’s room for improvement, especially at the lower end of the distribution. Few suggestions:

• Take advantage of the full time allotment. The average test completion time was 19 minutes, which means many of you had extra time to spend on the test.
• Slow down your thinking. Avoid the pitfalls of shortcut-based thinking, and instead make a deliberate effort to reason through each answer option. Open-book test questions are more complex than memory-based questions, because they are designed to test whether you truly understand the essence of each concept/theory. This means that the correct answer may be worded differently from its original presentation, so simple recognition-based heuristics won’t work here.
  
  • For example: The question asking you to explain Franz Mesmer’s relevance to the psychogenic paradigm had an answer option “He postulated that hysterical disorders could be explained by physical causes”. Shortcut-based solution: You see “hysteria”, recognize that this disorder was studied by neurologists around that time period, and conclude that this answer option must be correct – which is the wrong answer. Reasoned solution: This answer option reflects the somatogenic perspective (physical causes), whereas the question asked about the psychogenic perspective – therefore, this can NOT be a valid answer to the question.
• Practice test-taking with chapter quizzes. Use the chapter quizzes available through the textbook companion site to practice effective test-taking strategies (the same quizzes are also available through WileyPLUS). You can get 4x the learning out of each practice question by explaining what every answer option means, why it is correct or wrong for that particular question, how you would change the question to have that answer option be the correct one, what else you know about each answer option, and so on. For more test-taking strategies, check in with the Academic Skills Centre.
• Study the material before the test. Approach the Unit Test as you would a regular exam: study the unit material ahead of time, explain your understanding of the learning outcomes, and if you can, get someone else to test you – feel free to connect with each other for a study session, or take advantage of our Thursday study sessions.

Your final test grade will be based on your best 8 out of 10 Unit Tests, so let’s learn from the first one and make the rest of them count!

Best regards,

Katia

Created by and shared with permission of Professor Kateryna Keefer

Prepared by: Dana Capell

Last Updated: November 24, 2020