Jennifer: In the study skills courses at CADE and in our tutor training workshops, we talk about studying for the type of test that will be given. When some students are given terms to learn, I find and the tutors find, that some (esp. freshmen) often study as though the professor is going to give them a matching test or a fill-in-the-blank with a word bank test. They need to study in a way that will help them recall and use the information in a variety of contexts. A tell-tale sign for bad studying is those infernal flash cards with a term on the front and a simple definition on the back. At the very least, we try to get them to increase the complexity of the information on those cards (I’ve attached a little handout we give them with a pack of a few large blank note cards to get started). The tutors are trained to help them look at the information to apply a variety of levels of thinking to it to consider the variety of questions that might be asked. I tell the tutors to ask the students to take notes in the Cornell style (with the 2.5” margin on the left) and bring the notes to tutoring and work with them on making up questions about that material. (The students go straight to “Define X” as the question they think will be asked, but the tutor is trained to help them combine multiple ideas, compare and contrast, etc.) I’ll also put in a plug for academic coaching. The CADE professional staff can work with students on these skills. They can either sign up for a regular appointment that will occur over several weeks or they can do a one-time drop-in with an academic coach (this semester, that’s offered in the library Rm 102 on Thursdays from 3-5 p.m.) The poster I attached for academic coaching is set for large-sized printing, but you can at least see what we are offering. Amy Crouse-Powers On Mar 7, 2017, at 11:31 AM, Withington, Jennifer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Dear Colleagues, I was going over the most-missed questions on my last freshman exam and a few thoughts struck me. I am sharing because I think that many of you have run into similar outcomes. I have noticed that a question asking students in one fashion or another for the wrong/incorrect answer is more likely to be missed by a majority of the students (e.g.: which would you fail to find?, which statement is incorrect?, which is not _____?, etc.). I feel that this is due to a combination of (1) failure to study well, (2) studying in a fashion which does not help them think these through, and (3) loosing track of the fact the question asked for the incorrect answer when they are so used to looking for the correct one. The other kind of question they have great difficulty with are the ones that ask them to reason through information I have provided in the question, couple it to facts they were to have learned for the exam, and by forward thinking as well as elimination of incorrect answers get to the correct answer. In this case reasons 1 and 2 from above are coupled with reason (4) getting tied up in thoughts of “did we have this in our notes?”, “was this something I should have studied?”, etc. However, I am also starting to wonder if brain development is also a factor. I am sure many of us have heard that upper-level reasoning and thought is not fully developed in brains until people are ~20 (say junior year). So are these types of questions really above the ability of most of my freshmen students? What are your thoughts? Perhaps the Ed, Psych, and EdPsych faculty have some insights that would be useful? Appreciating your insights, Jennifer Withington Assoc. Professor of Biology SUNY Oneonta 116 Science I Oneonta, NY 13820 607-436-3421