Chemical Engineering 205

Memo to students with disappointing test grades MEMO
TO: Students who have been disappointed with their test grades
FROM: R.M. Felder

Dear student,

Many of you have told me that your test grades don't reflect your understanding of the material and asked me what you should do to keep the same thing from happening on the next test. This is my response.

Below you'll find a set of questions about how you've been preparing for tests. I suggest that you print this memo and respond to the questions as honestly as you can, and then refer back to the memo and the questions several times before the next test. The question "How should I prepare for the test" becomes easy once you've filled out the checklist. The answer is "Do whatever it takes to be able to answer `Yes' to most of the questions."

Good luck,
Richard Felder

Test Preparation Checklist

Answer "Yes" only if you usually did the things described (as opposed to occasionally or never).

__ Yes	__ No	1.	Did you attempt to set up every homework problem solution before your group met?
__ Yes	__ No	2.	Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? (Just hunting for relevant worked-out examples doesn't count.)
__ Yes	__ No	3.	Did you participate actively in team meetings? (Contributing ideas, asking questions, helping to resolve conflicts,...)
__ Yes	__ No	4.	Did you ask teammates to explain things you didn't understand?
__ Yes	__ No	5.	Did you understand ALL of your team's problem solutions when they were handed in?
__ Yes	__ No	6.	Did you consult with TA's during office hours when you were having trouble with something?
__ Yes	__ No	7.	Did you consult with one of the course instructors during office hours or by email when you were having trouble?
__ Yes	__ No	8.	Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problems that weren't clear to you?
__ Yes	__ No	9.	Did you attempt to set up lots of problems without looking at previous solutions?
__ Yes	__ No	10.	Did you carefully go through the study guide and convince yourself that you could do everything on it?
__ Yes	__ No	11.	Did you do 9 and 10 with other students (for example, your homework team)?
__ Yes	__ No	12.	Did you attend all or part of the review session before the test?
__ Yes	__ No	13.	Did you ask questions at the review session about anything on the study guide you weren't sure about?
__ Yes	__ No	14.	Did you get a reasonable night's sleep before the test?

If you answered "No" to many of these questions, your disappointing test grade(s) should not be too surprising.
If you still answer "No" after the next test, your disappointing grade on that test should be even less surprising.
If your answer to most of these questions was "Yes" and you still got a poor grade, something else must be going on. I'd be happy to meet with you to see if we can figure out what it is.