I Don’t Like My Exam Grade!  Now What?

1. Relax.  Introductory psychology students can drop their lowest unit exam grade with no penalty if they comply with the "reaction journal" option requirement.  Students in higher level courses can’t do that, but it’s early in the semester.  In all courses, there are ways to earn a grade other than taking exams (e.g., alternative project option, term paper, in-class presentation, reaction essays).  Take full advantage of these opportunities especially if you are the sort of person who does not “test well”.

2. Go through your exam with a fine-toothed comb, comparing it to the answer key (answer keys are posted to this Web site as soon as all late test-takers have completed the pertinent exam).  Try to figure out where you went wrong.  Then schedule an appointment to talk through the exam with me.  Things to pay attention to:  (a) Did you do appreciably better on the pretest than on the real exam?  (If so, test anxiety or time pressure may be significant issues for you;  Student Services has resources that can help you.)  (b) Did you do appreciably better on one part of the exam (essay vs. multiple choice) than the other?  A significant disparity (more than 5 points) may suggest some important facts about your learning style, learning strengths, and test-taking strategies.

3. Did you finish the exam very early or very late compared to most of the class?  This may suggest that your response style is too impulsive (if you finished too early) or too deliberate (if you finished too late).  Pacing and timing yourself during exams is essential.  Try taking 2-3 minutes at the start of the exam to skim the entire exam and plot out a strategy for taking the exam.  Save tough questions until the end.  Read item #6 below if timing is a problem for you;  usually, it’s the Adventurer/Artisans who finish too soon, the Commander/Guardians who finish too late.

4. Are you studying enough?  You should be putting in 2 to 4 hours of study time for every hour you are in class.  If you don’t know what to do with all that time, ask!  Be sure you review your notes every day within 1 hour of lecture if possible; most forgetting takes place within one hour of an event.

5. Are you studying with your mind in gear?  Mindlessly reading through your notes (so-called “maintenance rehearsal”) is of NO VALUE in enabling you to learn and recall the material;  you might as well be doing something more enjoyable.  What works is “active rehearsal” – which occurs when you ask yourself questions about the material as you review it and engage in honest self-testing of your understanding as you go.  That’s what the study guides are for… use them!

6. Have you considered your temperament?  (Click here to learn more about your temperament if you don’t know what it is.)  Remember that there are four temperaments:

Commander or Guardian = concrete linear learning style

Adventurer or Artisan = concrete nonlinear learning style

Systematizer or Rational = abstract linear learning style

Harmonizer or Idealist = abstract nonlinear learning style

I’m a Harmonizer/Idealist, and in my experience, students who struggle in my classes usually (not always) have one of the two concrete styles (Commander/Guardian or Adventurer/Artisan), and find themselves struggling with the theoretical/abstract elements of the class.  In other courses, different temperaments may have an advantage.  In general, students whose temperament matches that of their professor have an advantage, by as much as half a grade level according to some studies.  So if you’re in a class where there’s a temperament mismatch, you’ll have to work harder to emulate your instructor’s mental style.

I have some detailed suggestions for you along these lines...   to read them, you simply have to click here.  And also here.

7. A few basic hints on essay questions:  (a) Circle all the verbs (action words) that tell you what you have to do to construct a complete answer to an essay question.  For instance, “compare and contrast” means that you must say BOTH how two things are alike AND how they are different.  Are you asked to give an example and explain how you know the example is correct?  Are you asked to show why a given example matches or exemplifies a theory?  Make sure you’re doing what is asked of you;  many students answer only the first half of a two-part question and then forget about (or fail to recognize) the other half.  (b) In general, good essays in a course like this one will often require that you first explain a concept or theory, then identify or generate an example, then show how the theory (abstract element) and the example (concrete element) are linked – proving that the example fits the theory.  If stuck, use this as a general sort of outline.  (c)  Don’t expect me to be able to read your mind… my telepathic skills are remarkably poor.  If you want to say something, write it down.  (d)  Always write something – never leave a blank.  If you have nothing else to offer, provide a piece of autobiography.  Blank pages can’t garner any partial credit.

8. Regarding multiple choice questions:  (a)  Never completely skip an item;  there is no penalty for guessing.  (b)  Often, it is easier to eliminate one or more WRONG answers than it is to immediately spot the RIGHT answer;  doing this can increase your odds of a correct guess considerably.  (c)  It can help to try to answer the question BEFORE looking at any of the response alternatives.  That way, you won’t be fooled by response choices that are deliberately designed to trap, trick, or fool you.  (d)  Unless you have a clear and compelling reason for doing so, never change  your answer;  trust your gut.  Research indicates that first impressions have a greater than chance probability of being correct;  what’s going on neurologically is that your right hemisphere knows the answer, but can’t articulate how it knows.  (e)  As an absolute last resort, count how many times you have used the A, B, C, and D responses;  most instructors, including myself, try to make each of these the correct answer approximately the same proportion of the time, so in guessing, an underused letter is a good selection.

9. Do make an appointment to meet with me in person.  Admittedly, I’m not in my office all of the time, but I’m committed to meeting with students who want help. 

10. Take advantage of tutoring opportunities on campus.  This semester, Jenny Rausch is serving as the psychology tutor.  Her schedule is posted at the campus tutoring center.  Many students find it easier to talk with a peer than with an instructor. 

11. Don’t set yourself up for failure by giving up prematurely or by searching for someone or something else to blame.  Instead, make a specific diagnosis of what’s going wrong and develop a strategy to fix it.  Is the problem one of note-taking, of studying, or of test-taking?  Studies indicate that half of academic failures are due, not to a lack of ability, but to faulty assumptions – self-blame or scapegoating the instructor, neither of which do much good.

12. Put your academic performance in context.  It’s one class.  A bad grade is not a death sentence.  Academic success is important;  so is being a generous, responsible, caring, decent human being.

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