In many of my courses, students take in-class tests with
essay and true-false items. I use these questions to
assess how well students understand important course
concepts and to see how well they can analyze and apply
evidence in ways that demonstrate their mastery of course
materials.
I assign grades to open-response items using the following assessment criteria:
F: The answer does not meet
college-level expectations for quality of work. The answer
is either left blank or completely wrong in a way that
indicates that the question's key concepts/terms are not
understood at all by the student.
D: The answer demonstrates that the student is at best vaguely familiar with the relevant concepts for the question and obviously does not understand the applicable course materials. The answer is mostly or completely wrong; however, the student provides some information related to the important concepts/terms in the question, which suggests that the student has some idea about where the question fits into the larger scheme of the course.
C: The answer demonstrates that the student understands the item's relevant concepts at the most basic level. A “C” response answers the question correctly but is very short on details and evidence; these answers define key terms correctly and provide a basic idea of their significance but little more. With these answers, it is hard to tell if any of the related readings have been completed. A “C” answer often fails to address (or does so inaccurately) major dimensions of the question or the assigned materials related to it,
B: A “B” answer accurately
defines most or all of the question's key concepts and
explains their relationship to major class topics. It
provides details and smart analysis. “B” answers
specifically refer to ideas and evidence from class
discussion and reading assignments. These answers are
quite strong but either do not provide a full range of
examples or are otherwise very good answers that have left
out important elements of the prompt.
A: The answer demonstrates that the student has mastered the relevant concepts and materials at a superior level. An “A” answer goes beyond correctly defining the question's key concepts and accurately explaining their relationship to major class topics. An “A” answer also provides numerous examples and specific references to course readings and seminar discussions, indicating that the student thoroughly understands and can apply the concept/term and support arguments with the best available evidence.
A-plus: An “A-plus” identification answer is a model response. The answer indicates that the student has mastered all of the relevant concepts and materials at a level that is well beyond what is typical for students taking a course at this level, elegantly explaining all major aspects of a concept/term and providing many examples from the course readings and seminars.
For essay answers that fall somewhere between two
categories, plus-minus grades will be assigned.
For exams that have a true-false or multiple-choices section, I often assign 11 items. Some questions are more difficult than others, and grades for the 11-item section are assigned based on the number of correct items rather than a straight percentage:
F (failing work): 3 or fewer items answered correctly.
D (poor work): 4 or 5 items answered correctly.
C (typical and satisfactory work): 6 or 7 items answered correctly.
B (good work; above average): 8 or 9 items answered correctly.
A (exceptionally good work):
10 or 11 items answered correctly.
No plus/minus grades are
assigned for the T/F section.
Sometimes, tests include more than 11 T/F or multiple-choice
items. If so, the grade cutoffs for this part of the exam
will be adjusted accordingly but still follow the general
pattern noted above, where earning an A grade does not
require a perfect score and most of the grade cutoffs
require a lower score than what a raw percentage would
indicate.