What are your least favorite types of exam questions?

[xpinchx]

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For example, multiple choice, short answer, essay, open-ended (such as math/physics/organic/chemistry), oral/practical, or whatever other testing methods are out there.

For me it's a tie-up between multiple choice and oral/practical. Multiple choice can be a godsend or a smiting from satan himself. For example in Physiology we'll have a multiple choice question A-E, and the question will be "which of the following is false" or "The following statements are shared by both Gs and Gq pathways, except Gq differs in the fact that ___." These types of questions don't make it easy to pick the "right answer" but you sort of have to go through all of them and reason why they are or aren't the answer, and worse yet is when there are two answers that could be possible but you have to choose the one that is "more right." And oral practical exams are just downright awful. I'm such a visual person that I freeze up when asked even basic questions (In Anatomy all my professor wanted from me for neuroanatomy was the 12 cranial nerves and I couldn't even do that. He told me to sit down, think about it, and come back when I was ready. I sat down for 10 seconds, wrote them out, went back up and told them to him. 🙁

So what's your least favorite type and why?

 

[jr doctor in sd]

For example, multiple choice, short answer, essay, open-ended (such as math/physics/organic/chemistry), oral/practical, or whatever other testing methods are out there.

For me it's a tie-up between multiple choice and oral/practical. Multiple choice can be a godsend or a smiting from satan himself. For example in Physiology we'll have a multiple choice question A-E, and the question will be "which of the following is false" or "The following statements are shared by both Gs and Gq pathways, except Gq differs in the fact that ___." These types of questions don't make it easy to pick the "right answer" but you sort of have to go through all of them and reason why they are or aren't the answer, and worse yet is when there are two answers that could be possible but you have to choose the one that is "more right." And oral practical exams are just downright awful. I'm such a visual person that I freeze up when asked even basic questions (In Anatomy all my professor wanted from me for neuroanatomy was the 12 cranial nerves and I couldn't even do that. He told me to sit down, think about it, and come back when I was ready. I sat down for 10 seconds, wrote them out, went back up and told them to him. 🙁

So what's your least favorite type and why?

upper division multiple choice. Ive only taken a few UD's...but the difference is just insane...LD MC is pretty manageable if you know your stuff. But with UD it just seems liek you have to know the professors' tricks more than the material to do well 👎

 

[ChubbyChaser]

My least favorite was multiple choice A-E. Pick all that apply. And you have to get all of them right

 

[NFiasco]

a) choice 1
b) choice 2
c) choice 3
d) choice 4
e) two of the above
f) three of the above
e) all of the above

 

[killinsound]

in one of my classes it was multiple choice

A - J (I kid you not ) with each question depending on the last question, no partial credit obviously.

 

[MattD]

in one of my classes it was multiple choice

A - J (I kid you not ) with each question depending on the last question, no partial credit obviously.

And this is why college professors should be required to take some class, at least a crash course, in pedagogy and testing methodology. Any education major will tell you that linked questions are a huge no-no in tests, as they aren't valid in testing your knowledge base.

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

a) choice 1
b) choice 2
c) choice 3
d) choice 4
e) two of the above
f) three of the above
e) all of the above

that is my least favorite- i hate when you know it could be two and aren't sure on the third or fourth so frustrating!

 

[GoldShadow]

My least favorite questions are the ones the professor expects you to answer correctly to get credit.

 

[burningsky]

I hate really vague fill in the blanks.

i.e. _________ can inhibit _________ by using ___________.

 

[Funky]

the ones i dont know the answer to 😀

 

[Quix]

Not that this really answers the question asked, but a random neuron brought this to mind. On another discussion board, a kid was asking for help with a physics question:

A horse canters away from its trainer in a straight line, moving 130 m away in 14.0 s. It then turns abruptly and gallops halfway back in 4.8 s. Calculate a) its average speed, and b) Its average velocity for the entire trip, using "away from the trainer" as the positive direction

This was, IMHO, the best response he got:

Since this is a story problem, I think you should respond with a story answer. In this case it could be a powerful tale of love, self-discovery, and forgiveness, following the journey of one horse as it runs away from a safe but dull home life, has many wild and shocking adventures, and then returns home again, secure in the new knowledge that this is where it truly belongs.

I laugh about this to this day.

 

[alyssadk]

I hate the kind of multiple choice where they give you 2 easy answers and 2 nuanced variations on the same answer. I feel like I'm on "who wants to be a millionaire". Then I think of Regis Philbin. Then I just get pissed.

 

[Vvandenn]

Type K questions. For those of you that don't know what those are, they look like this:

Which of the following are muscle relaxants:

1. Atracurium
2. Vecuronium
3. Mivacurium
4. Valium

A. Choices 1,2 and 3 are correct.
B. Choices 1 and 3 are correct.
C. Choices 2 and 4 are correct.
D. Only choice 4 is correct.
E. All choices are correct.

😡

 

[Quix]

Type K questions. For those of you that don't know what those are, they look like this:

Which of the following are muscle relaxants:

1. Atracurium
2. Vecuronium
3. Mivacurium
4. Valium

A. Choices 1,2 and 3 are correct.
B. Choices 1 and 3 are correct.
C. Choices 2 and 4 are correct.
D. Only choice 4 is correct.
E. All choices are correct.

😡

This gives me Gen. Chem and Bio flashbacks, but kick up the multiple choice options through J.

 

[MattD]

Type K questions. For those of you that don't know what those are, they look like this:

Which of the following are muscle relaxants:

1. Atracurium
2. Vecuronium
3. Mivacurium
4. Valium

A. Choices 1,2 and 3 are correct.
B. Choices 1 and 3 are correct.
C. Choices 2 and 4 are correct.
D. Only choice 4 is correct.
E. All choices are correct.

😡

The nice thing, though, is that if you know even one of them is incorrect, it instantly becomes a 50/50 chance. 🙂

 

[jr doctor in sd]

I hate the kind of multiple choice where they give you 2 easy answers and 2 nuanced variations on the same answer. I feel like I'm on "who wants to be a millionaire". Then I think of Regis Philbin. Then I just get pissed.

im glad to see someone else thinks as weirdly as i do out there.

 

[Revenant]

Massively Complex Math/Physics Problem

a)2
b)-2
c)1
d)-1
e)0
f)Not enough information
g)haha outlier answer.....statistically this probably isn't the right answer...but on the other hand


Draw all the resonance structures of X:


Now...in and of itself this problem is not bad. Except doing 30 problems that are about as time consuming in 50 minutes is such a whorish thing to do.

 

[Quix]

All time worst, regardless of the class:

"Guess what I'm thinking" (50 points).




You all know what I mean.

 

[ZagDoc]

The bane of my existence all the way through undergrad were the "design an experiment..." questions.

Kinda how I figured out research wasn't for me 🙂

 

[ssquared]

The absolute worst I ever had?

Multiple choice-multiple choice.

The question stems were typical for a longer mc exam, but the killer was in the answer choices. Imagine having A, B, C, D, E for options, and you can circle as many (or as few) as you feel might be correct.

Like for the qustion:
"blah blah blah blah blah"
A. yadda
B. bleh
C. eh
D. meh
E. whatever

And you can pick whichever ones might be correct. None of the "two of the above" or "all of the above" stuff, just straight up get 'em all right or get the whole question wrong. And this was immunology!

 

[cystapharm]

i hate essay questions and fill in the blanks. i love m/c of any sort.

 

[Julietcf14]

Favorite exam question

Name: ___________________
Date : ___________________


Its usually downhill from there

 

[xpinchx]

Favorite exam question

Name: ___________________
Date : ___________________


Its usually downhill from there

Same here, I always get stuck on "Section: ____________"

 

[MedicalStudent8]

As many people here have already stated, I hate the ones like:

Which of the following is (are) true?

a) I hate school.
b) I would like to strangle my teacher.
c) Multiple choice questions are useless.
d) I have indigestion right now, and I can't sleep, so I'm on SDN.
e) I'm going to the movies this weekend.
f) I have an itch on my left bicep.
g) a, b, and d
h) a, b, and e
i) c, b, and d
j) a, b, c, and d
k) a, b, c, d, and f
l) not enough information to decide
m) none of the above
n) all of the above

Well geeze, seeing as though I know that a and b are definitely true, that eliminates m and n... and I think that c is true also, but I can't be sure. Wow, so by process of elimination, I still have 9 possible choices! That really narrows it down! 🙄

I swear that if I ever become a teacher one day, I will comprise every test solely of questions like that. I also love (sarcastic) the ones like: _________ will result in _________ if _________ occurs at __________. Ah, yes! Seeing as though I'm a mind-reader, I can confidently answer questions like that.

 

[BSN2DOC]

Not a typical pre-med major here -- studying nursing, and I have to say any nursing exam sucks.

My pathophysiology and pharmacology professor loves the "Select that All Apply" questions... absolutely dread those questions. And nursing school exam questions in general are typically always "Select the BEST answer". Typically A-E and there are ALWAYS two answers that are right but it is upto the student to pick the "best" answer. It is typically a 50-50 shot... although sometimes you can distinctly see the obvious answer.

 

[Hyperstudyosis]

I generally do well on essays and short answers and it gives me a chance to "show off" what I know. I definitely give more than the prof is looking for most of the time. So in that sense, I like those types of questions.

In math, I like the multiple choice because it so often keeps me from getting answers wrong. If I can't remember how to do a problem, I always have my graphing calculator and if there are four choices, I can pretty much figure out which one it is. And if your answer doesn't match up with one of the choices, you know you did something wrong and you need to go back and look (unless "none of the above" is one of the answers--I hate those).

 

[pakbabydoll]

Type K questions. For those of you that don't know what those are, they look like this:

Which of the following are muscle relaxants:

1. Atracurium
2. Vecuronium
3. Mivacurium
4. Valium

A. Choices 1,2 and 3 are correct.
B. Choices 1 and 3 are correct.
C. Choices 2 and 4 are correct.
D. Only choice 4 is correct.
E. All choices are correct.

I hate those, our teacher calls them multi-choice.......
however choices A-J comes close.

I like short answers the best because then even if you don't know your subject too well you can word like you knwo everything there is to know about it. For me to remember stuff I have to write it down at leasts 2 times so when I write my answers down I see my practice paper in my minds eye word for word.

 

[sailence]

We had a question on our drug test that said

"Crying Tom is in the bathroom chewing on the white mint, he wishs he had what?"
A.Phenergan
B.Viagra
C.Benadryl
D.Versed


I didnt know wtf a white mint was, she said it was a toilet, if I knew that I would have put phenergan because it relives Nausea/vomiting.

However, I said Viagra because I thought he was crying in the bathroom because he couldnt get a boner to have sex and he was depressed or something..

 

[Jacks Mannequin]

During AP Physics in high school, my professor used to have several multiple choice questions and said that if we feel the answer isn't one of the choices, we should write it down next to the problem. There wasn't even a choice that stated "none of the above."

In genetics at undergrad, the multiple choice questions could have more than one answer and we would have to bubble in all answers to get any credit. She wouldn't tell us which ones had more than one or how many had more than one answer.

 

[speeter]

Type K questions. For those of you that don't know what those are, they look like this:

Which of the following are muscle relaxants:

1. Atracurium
2. Vecuronium
3. Mivacurium
4. Valium

A. Choices 1,2 and 3 are correct.
B. Choices 1 and 3 are correct.
C. Choices 2 and 4 are correct.
D. Only choice 4 is correct.
E. All choices are correct.

😡

I second this one. They're called multiple multiple exams.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

Glad to see i'm not the only one who HATES UD multiple choice. However, true/false comes in a close second.

 

[45408]

I hate essay tests, because I write slowly, and I'm so used to being able to edit my thoughts on the fly (like you can with a computer), that I can't put together a coherent essay.

 

[meerkatmd]

I second this one. They're called multiple multiple exams.

I third this. I also hate the mc questions "choose the best answer" and theres like three of them that are all correct.

 

[jon stewart]

I third this. I also hate the mc questions "choose the best answer" and theres like three of them that are all correct.

this is what makes me mad too..the "best". I can usually narrow it down to two choices and ofcourse >80% of the time i pick the WRONG one..

 

[xpinchx]

I hate those, our teacher calls them multi-choice.......
however choices A-J comes close.

I like short answers the best because then even if you don't know your subject too well you can word like you knwo everything there is to know about it. For me to remember stuff I have to write it down at leasts 2 times so when I write my answers down I see my practice paper in my minds eye word for word.

I had a professor that would mark you down for putting down "too much info." He was pretty specific about it before the exam was given, but when we got all of our scores back he called 3/4 of the class "megalomaniacs."

 

[nammy]

i do not like the multiple-multiple choice ones. it is very confusing sometimes.....even when you study a lot. 😡