My Exams
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Chemistry 101 Course Portfolio by Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt
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I have long felt that students study more thoroughly for free response exams than they do for strictly multiple choice exams. I remember that I did when I was a student. In large classes, it is difficult to have all work-out problems and essays on exams without an army of graders, so I have compromised. My exams are 60% multiple choice and 40% free response. At the end of the exam, the proctors and I collect everything from the students. As soon as the exam is over, I go to my office, give the multiple choice part of the exam back to the students with an answer key. We used to hand out answer keys as the students left, but due to cell phones, pagers and other communication devices, I have changed my policy. The multiple choice part is graded by machine that day, and I usually put up the scores on WebCT that night. Students can pick up their multiple choice and an answer strip by my office directly following the exam. I have one grader who grades all of the free response part of the exams over about 5 days. All my exams are given on Tuesdays. The grader returns half to me on Friday and the rest by Monday morning. I then go over all the exams a second time to catch the small grading errors that always occur. The free response parts are handed back to the students on Tuesday. Between the two of us, we have very few complaints.

To prevent cheating, I make two forms of every test, one is copied onto green paper, the other onto yellow paper. The forms have different but similar questions in a different order. It is easy to see if people with the same exam are sitting next to each other. We also provide them with scanning sheets. They do not bring their own to the exam. We collect the scanning sheets in class to replenish the ones we use for exams. The exams and scanning sheet are placed into exam envelopes printed with the periodic table and other information. Here is a copy of the FRONT and BACK of the exam envelope.

Several years ago, I learned a unique, simple but effective way of giving partial credit. Many times students can eliminate three possible answers, leaving them with two. Each actual question is given as two questions. For example,

1&2.   Which of the following elemental names is incorrectly matched with its symbol?
           (a)   uranium/U         (b)   silicon/Si         (c)   iron/Fe         (d)   chromium/Ch         (e)   cadmium/Cd

If the student is sure that the answer is (d), she would bubble in (d) for Questions 1 and 2 on the scanning sheet. If she was not sure, she could answer (d) for Question 1 and (e) for Question 2 and receive half credit. The method is easy to apply, the students like it and the system rewards them for what they do know.

Here are the exams I used this semester as pdf files with their answers.

Exam 1A
Exam 2A
Exam 3A
Final Exam A
Exam 1B
Exam 2B
Exam 3B
Final Exam B
Answers to Exam 1
Answers to Exam 2
Answers to Exam 3
Answers to Final
Example of
for Free Response
Student Work
Example of
for Free Response
Student Work
Example of
for Free Response
Student Work
Example of
for Free Response
Student Work
MC Score +/- Stdev
44.9 +/- 12.5
Range: 13-60
MC Score +/- Stdev
47.9 +/- 10.9
Range: 15-60
MC Score +/- Stdev
45.8 +/- 10.3
Range: 15-60
MC Score +/- Stdev
82.1 +/- 20.8
Range: 25-120
FR Score +/- Stdev
29.4 +/- 7.1
Range: 10-40
FR Score +/- Stdev
27.1 +/- 10.1
Range: 2-40
FR Score +/- Stdev
32.6 +/- 10.3
Range: 3-40
FR Score +/- Stdev
23.0 +/- 9.0
Range: 3-40
Exam 1 +/- Stdev
72.8 +/- 18.6
Range: 21-100
(max=100)
Exam 2 +/- Stdev
70.9 +/- 21.0
Range: 15-100
(max=100)
Exam 3 +/- Stdev
76.5 +/- 15.7
Range: 26.5-100
(max=100)
Exam 4 +/- Stdev
109.0 +/- 28.5
Range: 44-162
(max=170)

You will notice that the answers do not include the answers to the free response. I never post these answers. I make comments on each student's paper and I will tell a student how to do the problem if they come to my office. However, I want the students to struggle over the free response questions on their own. I also don't want to feed the question banks of the professional tutors that operate outside the campus.

To help students study for the exams, I post my previous year's exams on our website with the answers to the multiple choice part only. There are also sample exam questions for every chapter posted on the website with answers, as well as the link to the textbook's website where quizzes can be found.