This was the second exam of the semester, and a few students
who were particularly fast on the first exam again finished the earliest. In fact, by simple observation of the extreme
cases the relative speed at which students worked was fairly similar. The fastest workers were the same, the
slowest workers were the same in either case.
On the other hand, the absolute
speed at which students worked was startling. Based on the extremes again, the fastest
students were done in just 10 minutes
while the last student still
finished in under 40 minutes. I had students working for up to 80 minutes
on the first exam, so the pace of the class overall was startling. Though my observations are driven by the
extreme cases for clarity, the students in-between submitted their exams at a
relatively steady pace (fairly balanced, overall).
I was curious to know if I had written an anomalously easy
exam, and I even asked a student who finished surprisingly early, “Too easy?” The response seemed to suggest that the exam
had been just that. This was early on
(less than 20 minutes), and I kept the exams sorted in order of completion to
see if there would be any difference between those who spent less than a minute
with each question and those who took more time to think.
To my increasing surprise, though, exam after exam was
submitted in fairly rapid succession. There
was a detectably confident air in the room as folks packed up to leave. And none
of my students spent more than a minute per question, on average (there were 50
questions total). Thus, Figure 1
includes the averages for 12 students who virtually all worked at a noticeably
quicker pace than they had previously.
Recall that the first few students finished in about 10 minutes, the
last few students finished in about 40 minutes.
My initial instinct to separate the earliest from the latest
finishers changed with added perspective.
Instead, as I look at Figure 1
I am more tempted to compare these results to those from the first exam. The main thing I notice is that the average
was actually lower on the second exam
(66.5) than on the first exam (70). This
comes despite the speed and seeming confidence with which students approached
the second exam.
Of course, how do you really interpret such a result? Perhaps the additional 3.5 points on average
would not be worth the same as the time saved for an average student. In a case like this, it may be that speed
doesn’t kill. Instead, speed is just
speed.
I know the dynamics of my surprise – first at the speed,
then at the confidence, then at the results – which are so-called because I can’t
discern any real correlation. In fact, Figure 1 depicts scores on exams
submitted within a half-hour window and shows no clear relationship between
exam score and order (time, by proxy) of completion. What I would have
expected, going in, would be an upside-down bell curve spanning a larger window
of time (at least an hour between first and last submissions). My prediction at 20 minutes into the exam
would have been much the same, only with a narrowed range between the high and
low scores (the confidence was not exclusive to star students).
I’m not left with much to conclude, though my main goal was
less to diagnose anything and more to share my striking observations. There may be some classroom psychology
phenomenon at work - I'd be interested to know if that's the case. All I really know is
that it was an interesting and quick day in class, and a lot of things
(obviously) grabbed my attention. My
guess is that any or all of the following factors were at play, in no
particular order of importance:
- Confidence
as test-takers
- Especially
among those who have already performed at a high level
- Cushion
from previous performances allows for a few small mistakes
- Overconfidence
as test-takers
- Especially
among those who have less experience/success in the sciences
- Recognizing/choosing
related but incorrect answers without careful reading
- Freedom
to go home after the exam and impatience at doing so
- Consideration
of weather, which was inclement and worsening
- Weariness
at this later stage in the semester
- Less
incentive to hurry on first exam, as a lecture was scheduled to follow
- Perceived
pressure to rush at seeing others complete the exam so quickly
- Perceived
correlation between exam success and speed of completion
- My wording/selection
of questions
- Subjects
more numerous/difficult than first exam
- Questions
themselves perhaps less specific/difficult than first exam
