Hi! I teach at Shoreline Community College.(sorry this became so lengthy.
it is not easy to stop raving about the successes and the pitfalls of
tke-home exams.) Regularly many faculty in our department have take-home
tests. I thoroughly agree with the prof from SCCC. Take-home tests engage
students, and often to a greater degree than other activities they are
assigned. There are some important points for the prof. Write the
problems, questions, scenarios or whatever to be challenging. If you have
not encouraged collaborative work and also, have not started cooperative
work as a campus or department expectation, then you may not wish to attach
the first such experience to "test" or "midterm-exam". On our campus I
think all of the math take home test directions are some what like the
samples of mine which I show below.
I've been doing this for about 8 years and all of the following are from
the past 2 years. My students may be preparing to transfer to 4 year
schools or they are tech majors. l work to have group work and to have
take home tests in all courses. Students who spend long hours(sometimes 2 -
10 hours) on a "paper" are learning to work faster by the 3rd paper in my
class. Many for the first time see it possible to have everything
presented well and to be marked 100% correct. Not all solutions will be
the same. Sometimes groups will write 2 papers and choose their best.
Others wish to have the ability to have a dissenting opinion. We do not
like to have students pay a tutor or use a free(to them) tutor to do the
papers. So, we faculty will post the problems in the Math Learning Center
with a NO HELP note. The students can still go to the MLC to work, and use
other than tutor resources.
Also, sometimes I schedule the take home exams so they are not juxtaposed
with an in-class exams. This fall they are listed separately on my
syllabi. I think this is happening because the students need ample time to
learn to use their calculators and/or learn to print on the computers and
some of the problems will require!!!
demonstration of the use of technology.!!!
Sample instructions:
Please use this page as your cover sheet and staple it on to your work.
This cannot be dropped as a lowest grade or late paper. GRAPHS FOR 1,2,3
are in the packet. Write solutions carefully, neatly and at your highest
cognitive level. Let your paper reflect your mathematical maturity. "It
is not about passing. It is about excelling." Uri Treisman
--- NO MLC HELP. Tutors are not part of groups, but students may work in groups. Do not copy from each other. Write your own sentence summaries. Learn to write a little at a time.--- This paper is due Thursday, Oct. 10 at the beginning of class. You may problem solve in groups. Each student should turn in their own written and computer work. When using non-printing graphing utilities, copy the graph with suitable viewing rectangle to your paper by hand. Also, please make the graph larger on the paper than 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch. Write a neat, mature math paper. Stapled please. ---NOTE THE EVOLUTION OF INSTRUCTIONS: This paper is due TUESDAY, MARCH 12 at the beginning of class. You may problem solve in groups. Tutors are not part of groups. Each student should turn in their own written and computer/calculator work. When using non-printing graphing utilities, copy the graph with suitable viewing rectangle to your paper by hand. Also, please make the graph on your paper at least 2.5 in. by 3.5 inches. Write a neat, mature math paper. Stapled, please.--- Use this paper as your cover sheet. Do not write on this sheet except to put names and row. Staple it to your papers which are in order. It is best to spend several days working on this exam. Work some each day; first make a rough draft and determine any places where you have difficulty. Look up these topics in your text and in your notes. Discuss plans for solutions with students in your group. Have the paper completed by Wednesday so you can prepare for the inclass exam on Wednesday and Thursday. For these problems it is OK to talk with your classmates and to work in groups. Tutors are not part of groups. Each person turns in a paper. Show neat, mature mathematics. Be sure to label axes and scales on graphs, and write complete sentences in responses to 1 and 3.Helen M. Hancock Mathematics Shoreline Comm. Coll. 16101 Greenwood Ave. N. Seattle WA 98133 Office: (206) 546-4735