Me _ I give a final anatomy exam (see attached, and you all are welcome to use it - simply don't post it anywhere my kids can find it until after next week...) Iask the kind of fundamental things about information flow in and out of the spinal cord/CNS -- the concepts of what has to happen for any muscle (never mind if you've forgotten the name of the one that helps you turn the ignition over in your car...), to trace the flow of material through the wonderful tubes that are our digestive, reproductive, respiratory and circulatory systems, and to quite simply demonstrate that you've mastered the names of ALL of the bones in the body.
For those who won't or can't see the attachment - there are eight questions — students can choose five. This makes the test a 50 point exam -- their regular unit exams are worth 80 points. So the students know that this is a "capstone" experience (to use the popular jargon of the day) of the course, and yet, most of the determination of their final grade has been based on the previous work they;ve done (or not) in the semester.
I have foundd that most of the students report to me that the leave the test realizing that they knew more anatomy than they realized. Of course, there are always those handful who, having been told the type of questions to expect, simply stare at the sheets of paper for 45 minutes and write (as one student did this morning) "I'm embarrassed to turn this in." With little to show for her hoped for career in allied health.
Hope this helps inform or assuage your guilt, dude. Jon Carl Shuster wrote:
Hello, everyone, I am right in the middle of putting together my final exam for A&P2. For years, I have given a comprehensive final exam, but I am starting to have second thoughts. I was wondering how many of you give a comprehensive final exam at the end of each semester, and what the arguments for or against might be. I know it is the end of the semester, and I'm not likely to get many responses right now, but I give my comprehensive exam this coming Monday, and the sheer neurosis/stress/panic/hypertension this is causing my students got me to re-evaluate my own arguments for giving one in the first place. Is it worth the angst???? Or am I creating all this tension for nothing? Is it a silly hoop? Discuss..... Carl S (sitting on the fence on this one) Carl Shuster Biology Madison Area Technical College (608) 246-6203 CShuster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.matcmadison.edu/faculty/cshuster/ ======================================== To manage subscription,send email from the subscription address to imailsrv@xxxxxxxxxxx and in MESSAGE (1)To unsubscribe from HAPS-L, put : unsubscribe HAPS-L,(2)To subscribe from a different address, put : subscribe HAPS-L your_full_name =======================================
-- Dr. Jon Jackson University of North Dakota Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Room 1701 School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stop 9037 Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037 jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 701 777 4911 vox 701 777 2477 fax
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ANAT 204 ƒf.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document