I am always amazed how the final exam goes better than any of the class tests, even though all five tests are identical in format and difficulty. This year was no exception.
The breakdown: A, 42; A-, 30; B+, 19; B, 17; B-, 16; C+, 11; C, 6; D, 13, Fails: 7 + 3 no-shows.
Excluding the three no-shows, the class average was 86%, well up from the average of 70% in Class Test 1 and 4, and still higher than Class Tests 2 or 3. Nobody got all questions right, but eight students got more than the 25 of 28 questions needed for 100%. Best of all though, over 40% of the class got an A or an A-. In those earlier tests, there was a serious shortage of A’s – never more than 30% of the class.
I had a lot on in the few days after Class Test 4, and I struggled to find time to write the Final Exam. In the end, I ran out of time to get someone in my research group to test drive the thing, so I was a bit nervous there would be an error. In the end there was not. All the questions worked well. I hope the test made the students think. And realize how much most of them came on.