I often worry about exam questions (even at my
age!).
I think there is still a tendency, more prevalent
in some disciplines than others, for some of the questions to be written in a
'clever' way, so that the clever students will read between the lines and know
how to go about answering them, while the less clever students will miss the
ball (to mix a few metaphors). There are still
people around in universities (some more than others) who applaud such
questions, and explain that after all we want to sort out the really bright
students from the others, don't we?
Part of my worry overlaps with an earlier
discussion on 'academic language', and the fact that students whose 2nd or 3rd
language happens to be English are disadvantaged at the game of second-guessing
the real meaning of 'clever' questions. [As indeed are students with some level
of dyslexia, and so on]. Under SENDA, it can be
claimed that a question containing 'tricks' which disadvantage someone with
special educational needs (dyslexia - and in my reckoning less developed levels
of English?) are technically 'unlawful', and ripe for appeals by
unsuccessful students.
I could of course rifle the exam question banks of
a few universities to provide some ammunition for this debate. However, I think
it will be more fun (and more learning for us all) to try to compose delberately
some 'clever' questions, alongside what they are intended to mean, and
(for good measure) what they could have been construed to be intended to
mean by a particular candidate.
So please compose your three versions
below:
ORIGINAL CLEVER QUESTION....
WHAT IT IS ACTUALLY INTENDED TO
MEAN....
WHAT SOME POOR CANDIDATE MAY HAVE THOUGHT IT MAY
MEAN.....
Entries will be rigorously doubly-blind and
anonymously judged by participants at a couple of my workshops next year,
using some clever criteria they will have had fun inventing, and the winning
entry will earn its owner a signed copy of one of my least clever books. With
your permission, I'd also like to illustrate the debate by pulling together some
of the questions either on my website or in this list or both.
thanks, and seasons greetings,
Phil
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from:
Professor
Phil Race