When I first began teaching my Anatomy and Physiology course, the previous instructor gave two very long exams with multiple choice, true/false and matching questions at midterm and final along with diagrams (100 multiple choice plus 20 matching and 20 True/False questions plus 10 diagrams to be finished in 2 hours). When the students would see their tests, they would panic and protested that the tests were too difficult.
Over the past years, I experimented with different test content and also with different testing interims. Instead of 2 exams of 8 chapters each, I now have 6 Unit tests covering 2-3 chapters each. I took out most of the diagram content to use for daily quizzes throughout the course instead of dumping so many at once.
Frankly, the overall scores earned by the students were not very different no matter what manipulations I did to size and frequency of the tests--but the change in morale was unbelieveably positive. The work is a little harder for myself, but good organization has been the key of keeping everything on task. After 8 years, I have finally gotten a workable formula for testing that works well for the content and pace of the class. My organization extends to the Course Agenda--my students know from the first day which content will be on each quiz and what chapters are included in each test.
I also added tutoring sessions to help the struggling student. Tutoring can include study and test-taking skills, time management, or course content. My students realize that it's hard work to master A&P, but they also appreciate the resources in place to help them if they feel overwhelmed. I feel fortunate that our campus encourages the investment of time and effort we make for our students.
