The Value of the First Exam
The Value of the First Exam
Transcript
After working with hundreds of students taking technical courses, I can say with confidence that it's one of the biggest missed opportunities, and that is the opportunity to look at the first evaluation in a technical course, usually a midterm exam, and not using it as a tool to increase your future success in that same class. I hear it all the time. Students are a little frustrated with a technical course, they've been working really hard, and they're not feeling fully confident. They take their first exam and they get it back, and they haven't done as well as they want to. And instead of looking carefully at why, they look at their grade, they get frustrated, and they toss their exam on the table and move on. What this does is it really misses the point of the first exam.
Sure, the first exam contributes to your overall grade in the course, and it's an important part of the evaluative structure of the course. But even more important than that, the first exam is a powerful audit of how you're approaching the course. Whether or not your study strategies are effective, and what you might need to do moving forward to change your approach to achieve your goals. As you think about the exam, I want you to think about it in the following ways. The first exam in a technical course, as in any course, is a key to how you're going to be evaluated in the future. Yes, it's true that the professor may have explained the structure of the exams to you, but when you get that first exam back, you now understand exactly what kinds of questions are being asked and what kinds of material the professor is going to focus on.
This is extraordinarily useful moving forward. The first exam is also a guide to help you modify your own study habits. It gives you a sense of what you're doing that's really working, and what you might need to change to better anticipate what's going to be on the exam. The first exam is also an expression of value from your instructor. It's your instructor making clear to you what they want you to know and what they're not so worried about. It's your instructor communicating what matters and what matters less. And so not taking the chance to really look closely at that to try to understand what's being expressed by the professor is a real mistake. Also understand that the first exam is a powerful audit of your approach to the course. Not only the strategies you're using, but also the attitude you have in lecture, the amount of time you're spending thinking about the readings, doing the papers, and in general how you're thinking about the course broadly. And finally, it's a really good hint about how to proceed. It gives you a road map that can give you a sense of where the road blocks are, where you may have run into them, and how you can avoid them in the future.
And finally, when you get your midterm exam back, it's a really important moment think about where the gaps might be. What kinds of information showed up on the exam that really took you by surprise? What kind of problems were on the exam that you weren't expecting, and that you were a little shocked to see? If you identify those, then you can fill those gaps and make sure you're more prepared for them in the future. So when you get back your first evaluation in a class, I want you to do a couple of things. First, don't just focus on what you got wrong. Focus on what you got correct. Focus on where your studying really paid off. If you invested a lot of time in learning terms and terms showed up on the exam, keep investing that time in learning terms.
And if you really focused on word problems and you felt very comfortable doing that type of problem, and those problems showed up on the exam, chances are your professor's going to continue asking those kinds of problems, and you're going to continue to be prepared for them. Notice what you did that worked, and of course, notice what you did that didn't work so well. Think especially about activities you did and types of studying that you engaged in that ended up being a little bit of a waste, and consider taking that wasted time and reinvesting it in something that's more productive given what you now know about how the professor is testing your knowledge in the course. And finally, note any gaps in your approach.
Take a look at your exam. Were there questions that you were really surprised by? Were there types of questions that you were shocked to see, or that you really were under-prepared for? If so, notice that, and make a plan for what you can do to be more prepared in the future. Because if that kind of question showed up on your midterm, chances are it'll show up on your final. And remember, it's really important to understand that your test score is not an expression of your intelligence. It has nothing to do with how smart you are, and it has less to do than you think with how much actual time you spent studying. I have students who tell me all the time, I spent hours, I spent days preparing for this exam.
And my question is, I'm not so concerned about how much time you spent, but how did you spend that time? What kind of study strategies were you using? What kind of review were you engaged in? Were you working with other people who could help test your knowledge before the test tested you? Think not about just the raw amount of time you spent, but what kinds of studying you did and the quality of that studying. So sure, your first test score doesn't tell us anything really about your intelligence, it doesn't really tell us about how much raw time you spent. What it does tell us about, and what it's a powerful audit for, is the quality of your studying. If you did poorly on a first exam, it means you need to change the way you're studying, and if you did really well, it means you should continue doing exactly what you're doing. Remember, if you want a different result, you have to change your approach to the course.
Sure, the first exam contributes to your overall grade in the course, and it's an important part of the evaluative structure of the course. But even more important than that, the first exam is a powerful audit of how you're approaching the course. Whether or not your study strategies are effective, and what you might need to do moving forward to change your approach to achieve your goals. As you think about the exam, I want you to think about it in the following ways. The first exam in a technical course, as in any course, is a key to how you're going to be evaluated in the future. Yes, it's true that the professor may have explained the structure of the exams to you, but when you get that first exam back, you now understand exactly what kinds of questions are being asked and what kinds of material the professor is going to focus on.
This is extraordinarily useful moving forward. The first exam is also a guide to help you modify your own study habits. It gives you a sense of what you're doing that's really working, and what you might need to change to better anticipate what's going to be on the exam. The first exam is also an expression of value from your instructor. It's your instructor making clear to you what they want you to know and what they're not so worried about. It's your instructor communicating what matters and what matters less. And so not taking the chance to really look closely at that to try to understand what's being expressed by the professor is a real mistake. Also understand that the first exam is a powerful audit of your approach to the course. Not only the strategies you're using, but also the attitude you have in lecture, the amount of time you're spending thinking about the readings, doing the papers, and in general how you're thinking about the course broadly. And finally, it's a really good hint about how to proceed. It gives you a road map that can give you a sense of where the road blocks are, where you may have run into them, and how you can avoid them in the future.
And finally, when you get your midterm exam back, it's a really important moment think about where the gaps might be. What kinds of information showed up on the exam that really took you by surprise? What kind of problems were on the exam that you weren't expecting, and that you were a little shocked to see? If you identify those, then you can fill those gaps and make sure you're more prepared for them in the future. So when you get back your first evaluation in a class, I want you to do a couple of things. First, don't just focus on what you got wrong. Focus on what you got correct. Focus on where your studying really paid off. If you invested a lot of time in learning terms and terms showed up on the exam, keep investing that time in learning terms.
And if you really focused on word problems and you felt very comfortable doing that type of problem, and those problems showed up on the exam, chances are your professor's going to continue asking those kinds of problems, and you're going to continue to be prepared for them. Notice what you did that worked, and of course, notice what you did that didn't work so well. Think especially about activities you did and types of studying that you engaged in that ended up being a little bit of a waste, and consider taking that wasted time and reinvesting it in something that's more productive given what you now know about how the professor is testing your knowledge in the course. And finally, note any gaps in your approach.
Take a look at your exam. Were there questions that you were really surprised by? Were there types of questions that you were shocked to see, or that you really were under-prepared for? If so, notice that, and make a plan for what you can do to be more prepared in the future. Because if that kind of question showed up on your midterm, chances are it'll show up on your final. And remember, it's really important to understand that your test score is not an expression of your intelligence. It has nothing to do with how smart you are, and it has less to do than you think with how much actual time you spent studying. I have students who tell me all the time, I spent hours, I spent days preparing for this exam.
And my question is, I'm not so concerned about how much time you spent, but how did you spend that time? What kind of study strategies were you using? What kind of review were you engaged in? Were you working with other people who could help test your knowledge before the test tested you? Think not about just the raw amount of time you spent, but what kinds of studying you did and the quality of that studying. So sure, your first test score doesn't tell us anything really about your intelligence, it doesn't really tell us about how much raw time you spent. What it does tell us about, and what it's a powerful audit for, is the quality of your studying. If you did poorly on a first exam, it means you need to change the way you're studying, and if you did really well, it means you should continue doing exactly what you're doing. Remember, if you want a different result, you have to change your approach to the course.