Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

this week i've been giving my classes a 15 question multiple choice exam as a prelude to my final exam.

i laid out the instructions clearly, however 2/5 instructions were not followed by at least half the students.

1. no talking. no matter how many times i said it i could not get a lot of these 20 year olds to stop nattering away.

2. circle the best answer. i anticipated problems with this one and repeated it a few times, even drawing a sample question on the board with one of the choices circled. yet still, a lot of them wrote an a,b,c,or d somewhere else near the question or used a checkmark somewhere, forcing me to give the paper back to ask them to fix it. i use a template to mark these things so circling the answer is really the only way for me to be able to mark all the papers in a timely fashion.

sometimes these kids are quite intelligent, and then other times i just wonder where they have parked their brains.... i think i already know the answer, but is this inability to follow instructions rampant in chinese colleges and universities?

if you have any advice for me, i'd be happy to hear it.

warmest regards ~ 7969

[kev7161]

I have such similar problems with my Senior students. Also, we do trade-n-grade on tests. So many times I tell them just to check off an answer if it is wrong . . . not correct . . . incorrect . . . bad answer . . . (thumbs down). Don't write the correct answer, don't do anything else. Just a check mark. Apparently, after 9 months, it is still incomprehensible to many of them. However, next year I am investing in a handful of red pens for them to grade with. That was my biggest mistake this year (well, one of them anyway!).

[Redfivestandingby]

"Inability to follow instructions". I find this to be interesting. I really believe that they can follow instructions...only when threatened in some way. We as FT's don't pose this type of threat as compared to their Chinese teachers. We don't command that type of respect. "Fear" is probably a better word than 'respect'.

That's why they talk during the tests. What are we gonna do about it? I told my students time and time again "no talking or else I take your test and it's a zero". So when I took the first test (because the student was turning around and talking to the classmate behind her and looking at her test) the student was shocked!!! Yes, they heard my warning. They just didn't believe that I would carry it out.

Of course, she begged and begged and cried her eyes out. All show, as far as I was concerned. And this is the crucial point: don't cave in. Stand your ground or else everyone will know that you are a pushover (as they expected anyway since you're a foreigner) and continue this type of behaviour.

They didn't follow instructions? Count it wrong. Give them zeros for all the wrongly chosen answers. Give an extra quiz to do this. One that won't count for their final grade. They'll learn fast.

On a more humorous note, a colleague once gave them an extra credit problem on a test. There were 20 or so steps to follow. The first one was read all instructions carefully first. The questions were things like, "draw an 'x' on the top left corner of the page" and "multiply 45685 x 985435". The kicker was that the last instruction stated, "only do number one and two".

I think only one student did it right. All others tried to cover their tracks by erasing all the different drawings, tick marks, math problems, etc... while laughing at themselves all the time. The instructions were clear. They just didn't pay attention. They learned quickly.

Hope this helps!!!

[kev7161]

My students do rather well these days in taking my tests. They know I'm serious as I have picked up and thrown a couple tests away. They do tend to want to talk after they have finished so my trick is to have a word search puzzle for them to do after they are done. I also have stocked my classroom with plenty of books and magazines. As for looking and copying, it is now almost non-existent with my students. But I like the idea of having two or three different tests (questions in a different order).

[mike w]

Most Chinese students do not have the same perception as we do about cheating. Most of what we consider to be cheating is seen by them to be 'helping their classmates', and not 'cheating'.
It's not a problem for me anymore. If you come down hard on them, the word quickly gets around. I give all my students (young adults 18 - 25) a lecture on 'exam technique', which includes the rules about cheating. Final exams for my classes are 2-hour written papers, usually about 7 or 8 pages long, and about 14 questions.
The rules for cheating are simple - if I THINK they are cheating - they fail. No talking, students spaced-out int the exam room so they would find it difficult to read someone else's paper, and all cell-phones switched OFF. If a cell-phone is left on the table they fail: if a cell-phone rings - they fail.
It works - i don't have problems any more.

[7969]

[7969]

[Roger]

I don't teach crappy "oral" lessons - what can you test at the end? BUt I do test their writing skills and listening/comprehension skills.
In exams for either, I handed out forms which accurately informed them how to do their job.
I specified that every error - grammar, spelling, writing in the margins, - would cost them l.5 points off their maximum 100.

In the Writing exam, I separated students that traditionally sit together. Furthermore, I gave out three different topics, no two students sitting side by side having the same one.
Two were essays, one was a CV. Yes, I had taught them how to transform a biography into a CV. We had practised it with the biography of a former Hong Kong governor. They had learnt how to filter relevant info and regroup it into suitable phrases.

I allowed them to use their dictionaries; none brought a printed dictionary. All had electronic ones...

Believe it or not, in one class 4 students out of 28 merely copied the photocopied biography of a VIP, thinking they had written a "CV"... I told them right away they had failed; two asked to resit their exam, and I allowed that (I have no choice as I would have to waste my spare time next week to give them another chance...).
But I charged them one kuai each for waasting my form, and they paid! After all, I had to photocopy all those forms in exact numbers, and then some more!

Three more students ignored the printed instruction that said: "Writing in the margins will be discounted by 5 points off 100 for each margin".