Timeline for Why are [some] professors ambiguous about material that is actually tested on exams?
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| Mar 30, 2022 at 15:13 | comment | added | Felix Benning | @SteveJessop whether or not it "helps" depends on the goal you want to achieve. It "helps" to get a good grade sure. But you have probably forgotten it by tuesday. Does it help you to actually become proficient in the subject the course has taught you so that you can apply it in the following course or in your professional life? Doubtful. So cramming does not "help" from that perspective, so there is no reason to encourage it if you are trying to achive the second goal. "Any measures cedes to be a good measure once it becomes a goal" - you even seem to forget the goal over the measure | |
| Dec 15, 2014 at 10:47 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | ... conceptual difference between a pre-test loop and a post-test loop in whatever programming language was used during the course than to know the exact names of any runtime library functions that may need to be invoked. Or, as another example: While the class material may mention groundbreaking statements of important people in the field, whether or not exact quotations of those statements, the names of the people that expressed them, or the years, are asked in the exam, is not inherently clear from the class, but requires either old exams for comparison or simply a direct question. | |
| Dec 15, 2014 at 10:47 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @SteveJessop: I think another important answer to that question is that simply not all content from a course is suitable for exams, and some content is nice to know, but nothing I'd consider remotely relevant enough to include in an exam. Owing to their generally limited overview of the field/topics compared to the lecturers, (some) students tend to be inherently bad at estimating which is which. When I was involved with exams, we usually wanted students to have a fair chance to pass - and that includes pointing out that for the exam, it's more useful to understand (w.l.o.g.) the ... | |
| Dec 15, 2014 at 10:14 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | "why do students so often ask what will be on the exam, when they have just had a class on the same material that will be on the exam?" -- aside from the work-avoidant ones who'll completely ignore anything not examined, those who are planning to do last-night revision want to plan what to revise, so it's helpful to know whether there's anything to leave out. One could say "ah, well, cramming is pointless, covering the course normally will ensure you retain everything you need to know". But that wouldn't really engage with the fact that students in fact do revise, and believe that it helps :-) | |
| Dec 15, 2014 at 1:31 | comment | added | Vality | In response to your last point, I would note that some universities assess points which are not taught on the course and it is expected of students to study them outside of class. It is important in these cases that students know this is so. | |
| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:26 | vote | accept | user3730788 | ||
| Dec 14, 2014 at 16:51 | history | answered | Oswald Veblen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |