Better test taking

In class tonight we took a 90-question practice "comps" exam. I'll take the real thing in October - the big test that makes or breaks graduation. Not surprisingly I haven't started studying yet (c'mon, it's 5 months away!), so I was a tad nervous about this unannounced practice exam.

Turned out to be a great experience though. We got to play with this new testing system called PRS - Personal Response System. Each student has a mini TV remote that they use to answer questions from a power point presentation. Students answer each question anonymously and the program automatically calculates all the results on a bar graph. Instant feedback for each student. Very very cool.

Everyone gets the opportunity to participate, not just the vocal kids, and there is less pressure to perform since all the displayed results are anonymous (unless the professor has the remotes linked to each student to register responses for an actual testing situation). Imagine being able to give a legit "participation" grade using this method. Kids are less inhibited.

I don't know how expensive this system is, but I hope schools are able to afford the program. If nothing else, I see it as being a fantastic method to keep girls' confidence up in math and science. I don't know where the breakdown is occurring with our young women not performing up to their abilities in math and science, but I think this is a wonderful tool to assist in that issue.