Timeline for Should I give full credit for a correct answer different from the expected one to an exam question?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6, 2022 at 23:06 | comment | added | Ryan | Honestly, it is a correct answer, is it not? It may have even been a more accurate or more complete answer. My approach in these situations was and always was to mark the answer with an explanation point and give full credit. Acknowledge the student's knowledge and mastery of the subject. Seems like the right thing to do. | |
| Oct 6, 2022 at 17:44 | comment | added | ZachMcDargh | @FedericoPoloni Quibbling over a precise line for an imprecise question is an exercise in futility. The right thing to do here is accept that the question is bad and do better next time. | |
| Oct 6, 2022 at 17:32 | comment | added | Oбжорoв | @WrichikBasu really? all reactions are chemical? | |
| Oct 6, 2022 at 12:31 | comment | added | user70769 | What about "an exothermic reaction"? | |
| Oct 6, 2022 at 10:20 | comment | added | Wrichik Basu | @FedericoPoloni The OP's question "What type of reaction is this?" is equivalent to "What type of chemical reaction is this?" If a student answers "chemical reaction", they shouldn't get any marks. | |
| Oct 6, 2022 at 8:15 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | Would you also have accepted "a chemical reaction" as a 100% correct answer? | |
| Oct 5, 2022 at 16:04 | comment | added | Carol | I use these situations as 'learning' moment in the lectures after the exams, particularly if there was some point that was interesting about the alternate choice. I describe the answer I was expecting for particular question was XYZ and explain why, then note that that some students answered YZA and discuss subtleties that distinguished the two approaches. | |
| Oct 4, 2022 at 20:50 | comment | added | Dave L Renfro | "20+ period of time" should have been "20+ year period of time". And in case my somewhat colloquial wording didn't properly get through, "I jumped all over these things" was not intended to be a positive trait, as I was referring to traits of a nit-picking student, although in my case I wasn't all that interested in grades (witness my 2.5/4.0 undergraduate grade point average). Thus, I was definitely aware of very many ways that an alleged misinterpretation can be made, which interestingly wound up being quite helpful in my later teaching. | |
| Oct 4, 2022 at 15:02 | comment | added | Dave L Renfro | (+1) I completely agree. In fact, I'm surprised that this is even an issue. For me things like this were learning experiences for writing questions in the future, although over a 20+ period of time it very, very rarely occurred, because I knew many potential pit falls from my personal student experience when I jumped all over these things and because after one or two of them I got pretty careful with writing test questions -- one example of many that I could give. | |
| Oct 4, 2022 at 14:48 | history | answered | Buffy | CC BY-SA 4.0 |