We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Exams: Using Research and Discussion to Measure Student Success

Timed testing, whether objectively through multiple-choice questions or subjectively through essays and short answers, often presents the most substantial challenge for freshman-level students taking the Introductory American History survey course. The uncertainty of what the test will cover often generates counter-productive levels of anxiety leading to poor grades and increasingly creative efforts at cheating. Timed testing poorly serves those students who do well when it comes to testing. The nature of test preparation creates circumstances in which students quickly forget the content studied once the test is over. Often in discussions concerning redesigning the Introductory American History survey courses, the focus concentrates on content, methodology, and/or technological innovations. Methods of assessment do not get the attention deserved. Students who fail examinations often withdraw from courses, adversely affecting retention rates; or these students remain enrolled and increase the failure rates. Traditional means of testing content knowledge poorly serve students as well as academic departments as a whole. Solving these problems requires the use of substantive alternate means of assessment, which is the focus of McGaughy’s presentation.