Formulating Essay Exam Questions

<--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> It is my opinion that the questions used on examinations is one of the most critical and one of the most neglected aspects of teaching. Looking back on my undergraduate days, one of the most worthwhile experiences I can remember was taking an essay exam in a philosophy course, and the question posed made me pull together the ideas in the texts we had been reading in a way that was both unexpected and genuinely exciting -- it really was like an enormous search-light had suddenly been turned on; I found the big smile that came over my face rather embarrassing. On the other hand, I have other memories -- much more vague, but still present -- of excruciating experiences trying to answer essay questions that bore no very definite relation to what had been read or said in class and that seemed like guessing games. The standard question of this sort -- "if Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Plato, Immanuel Kant, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, and Milton Friedman were all in a tent together, what would they say to each other?" In short, how exam questions are formulated can be a critical factor in whether a student comes away from a course with a positive or a negative attitude towards it. I find formulating exam questions for economic history courses much more challenging than for economics courses. In microtheory, for example setting a standard problem, or asking students to draw a standard diagram can reveal a great deal about what a student knows yet the student can be given fairly direct signals in advance to expect such questions. In economic history courses, essay questions form a central part of my exams. The trick is how to pose an essay question that requires some thought, that is involves more than simply prompting a memory dump on some topic, and yet is fair and can be reasonably attempted by the average student. [let me mention as an aside here, that I suspect that looking at at the examinations set would be especially useful in evaluating teaching. However, it doesn't seem to be a common practice -- at least not at my institution. I would be interested in hearing from other subscribers their own experiences or knowledge of whether the exams actually set are ever used in evaluating teaching.] I offer the following as sort of crude typology of the approaches that occur to me in setting essay exams. I invite others to offer further suggestions either of general types of questions or of specific questions. I am also providing examples of each type below. In most of the cases these are questions I have to confess I have actually used. I am swallowing my pride in sending them out to this list. I openly welcome critiques of any of these questions -- comments on why they are naive, misleading etc. Also, I welcome any suggestions for how these questions could be reformulated to improve them. Type I: The Memory Dump Prompt. Example: "Survey the major influences on the economic growth of the U.S. between 1600 and 1990." [Let me say, I have never used this actual question; but it should be evident why it is an open prompt to simply reproduce course notes.] One may want to simply reject this approach to formulating questions out of hand. However, it can be defended -- indeed some years back I saw a feature in _The Teaching Professor_ explaining how such an approach could be very valuable. They key is the students need to know in advance it is coming so that they can give some thought to preparing an organized answer. The feature in question used the example of a Geology course where the one and only final exam question was, "Discuss the Geology of the Earth." The person writing the feature had been a student in this course and said it was one of the most worthwhile questions that they had ever had posed. Being so open-ended, one had to think carefully about what had been taught in the course, in order to have any hope of writing anything coherent on the final exam. Type II: "Leading them by the Hand" Example: "Survey the extent and sources of productivity growth in a)agriculture b) manufacturing and c) commerce in America between 1600 and 1860. In your survey you should: a)list important organization/institutional changes and technological changes in each of the three sectors that would have influenced productivity growth. Briefly explain how each of the changes you list actually influenced productivity growth. b)compare the relative importance of organization/institutional changes vs. technological changes between the three sectors. c)compare the magnitude of productivity growth between the three sectors (both quantitative and qualitative evidence and considerations would be relevant here.) d) compare similarities and differences in the causes of productivity growth between the three sectors." The reason for posing the question this way is to start with specific information that hopefully even the weaker students can provide and building up to more general issues involving more synthesis and thought. By being very specific about what is to be addressed it facilitates a coherent and systematic answer. However, when I recently visited at LSE and offered questions of this sort for mock exams, I was rather firmly told that such questions were not consistent with "house style" and that students at LSE expected questions requiring a fair degree of independent thought. Which leads me to Type III. Pithy but enigmatic. Example: "Evaluate: The U.S. would have experienced faster economic growth in the nineteenth century if it had more rivers and fewer railroads." This type of question has the virtue of allowing more scope for independent thought and pulling ideas together. However, it also probably has the disadvantage of confusing students at less selective institutions -- say places like my own where combined SAT's average just over 1000. Type IV: Middle Range Survey and Synthesis: Examples: 1)"To what extent can the Malthusian model explain economic trends in Europe between 1,000 A.D. and 1750 A.D.?" 2)"What factors can explain the shift in regional economic dominance from the Mediterranean to the North Atlantic in Europe between 1450 and 1750?" I suspect that many economic historians tend to use type IV in their essay exams. I suppose the main issue that arises for me with using this type is how much advance prompting needs to be given in advance when one is dealing with undergrads at a not very selective institution. That is enough for one posting. I look forward to: 1)critiques of any of the specific questions listed above. 2)suggestion for modifying any of the specific questions listed above. 3)critiques of the typology of exam questions listed above. and perhaps most important of all -- 4)examples of essay exam questions that you have used along with any commentary on the results. David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. >