I’m right there with you. I actually preferred the time constraint of an in-class essay over a take-home essay. I think it also helped me think on my feet better and form a cogent argument off the cuff. When I took essays home, I would agonize over every word and re-write sentences a hundred times.
My unpopular opinion is that I have always preferred essay tests to multiple choice or true-false (especially true-false).
Essay or even short form free answer questions are much better at gauging comprehension. Limited choice response tests are about test taking.
A friend, who is a bit of a jerk, decided to prove a point to one of his classes. Each of his tests had a multiple choice, a short answer, and short essay sections.
One test, all the multiple choice answers were “B”, except the last one. Most of the class got it right but almost all of them circled B first.
He did the opposite to a different class - all the answers were C. A fair number of students marked B then switched it to C.
The best thing is that the wrong answers weren’t trick answers.
I’m right there with you. I actually preferred the time constraint of an in-class essay over a take-home essay. I think it also helped me think on my feet better and form a cogent argument off the cuff. When I took essays home, I would agonize over every word and re-write sentences a hundred times.
My unpopular opinion is that I have always preferred essay tests to multiple choice or true-false (especially true-false).
Essay or even short form free answer questions are much better at gauging comprehension. Limited choice response tests are about test taking.
A friend, who is a bit of a jerk, decided to prove a point to one of his classes. Each of his tests had a multiple choice, a short answer, and short essay sections.
One test, all the multiple choice answers were “B”, except the last one. Most of the class got it right but almost all of them circled B first.
He did the opposite to a different class - all the answers were C. A fair number of students marked B then switched it to C.
The best thing is that the wrong answers weren’t trick answers.