Exam #1
What’s on the Exam…
Terms – These are basic
concepts or processes that make up the
jargon of our discipline. Sets of
these that are particularly important to discriminate appear together in each
fill-in-the-bank term. Understanding how
terms within each set are similar and different will help you form the cognitive structure of this jargon necessary to understand and apply
these concepts and processes. There will
be 10 of these terms on Exam 1.
Short
Answers
– These ask you to articulate (using sentences and paragraphs – points will be
lost for outlines, lists, non-sentences, etc.) more complete definitions of and
interrelations among key concepts and process. These have been chosen to help
you further integrate your cognitive
structure of this information and to explicate certain scripts that specify how we complete key procedures.
There
will be two of these short answers on Exam 1 – The first I will pick for you to
answer; the second I will pick two questions for you to choose from and answer.
Some
of the questions have parenthetical portions that are designed to help you
compose a complete answer but these portions will not appear on the
examination.
Story
Problems
‑‑ You will be given one or more story problems to consider and
asked to: 1) identify the hypotheses involved,
2) identify the type of design, sampling,
assignment, and data collection, 3) describe and/or evaluate the different
types of validity involved,
4) evaluate whether the design is appropriate to test the
intended research hypotheses, 5) suggest improvements in the design or data
collection procedures that would improve the validity of the study, and/or 6)
evaluate the utility of the resulting data for a specific application. There will be one story problem with several
questions to answer about it.
How the Exam & Exam ReTake
work…
Exams & ReTakes will usually be taken in
the Digital Learning Center in the Library.
Taking the Exam -- Check the Unit #1 schedule to see when Exam 1 is available. Go to the DLC website and make an appointment
when to take the exam (you will also have to make an appointment for Exam 1b,
if you choose to take it.)
Grading your Exam – The Terms and parts of the Story Problems are
graded by the computer, and your grade on that portion of the exam is available
almost immediately. After the testing
period is over, I will check the grading of the Terms (spelling does not count
– if I can figure out what term you meant, and it is correct, you’ll get credit
for the item), Essays, and certain parts of the Story Problems. There are about 120 of you and the grading of each takes
about 20 minutes, so the grading won’t be done in a day or two, but I will
hurry, promise!
ReTakes – After the exams are graded, a ReTake will be available.
Check Unit #1 Schedule to see when the Exam 1 Re-Take is available in
the Testing Center. Please note: The
Depending upon how you did on the
Exam, you can retake one, any two or all three portions of the Exam (Terms,
Essays, Story Problems). Please Note: To
retake a portion of the Exam means to redo ALL the questions on that part. That is:
To retake the Terms means you answer all 10 terms on the ReTake Exam; To retake the Essays means you answer both
essays on the ReTake Exam: To retake the Story Problems means you answer
all questions on the Story Problem.
Exam Grades are based on the better score for each section. That means if on a section of the Exam you
(horrors) do poorer on the retake than on the original testing, your score will
be based on the higher, original score.
How to Study for the Exam…
In
addition to the PowerPoint and MP3 files from the lectures, there are multiple study aids available for each
of the portions of the exam. You’ll notice that the AllTheWords
sheet is mentioned to help with the study of each portion of the exam. As a previous student put it, “This is a word
game. If you don’t know the words, you
can’t play the game well!”
Terms:
Essays:
Story Problems: