In the Spring semester, our teaching team were shock to see student's poor performance in the midterm exam -- substantially poorer than previous several semesters. We repeatedly asked ourselves whether our midterm exam was much more difficult than those of previous years. We checked but only to conclude that the level of difficulty was not much different from the past two semesters. In fact, most of the questions in the exam were very similar to (but not exactly) those in the past two semesters. Since the past exam papers were posted on our course moodle before the midterm, students who had looked at and practice on these past exam papers should have no difficulty in solving those problems.
To further verify that the poorer performance was mainly due to student's ability and/or the time they put on preparing for the exam, we decided to do an experiment. In writing final exam, we included the exact questions from the past two exams. And, as usual, before the final exam, we released the two past exam papers on our course moodle and set up a forum for students to ask any question about the past exam papers.
Yes, the exam papers were personalized so that the numerical answers were different from that of previous exams. But, the context and the approach of solving the problem were essentially the same. In short, the level of difficulty of the test was essentially no different from that of previous years.
If student's ability and time spent on preparing for the exam were similar to that of previous cohort, one would reasonably expect this group students to perform well -- at least as well as previous cohort. Right?
Can you guess what we find?
2021-07-14 | Cooling-off period |
2021-03-17 | Online data are cheap and easy to find, but they have limitations! |
2021-02-08 | Mini-projects to build up research ability (1) |
2021-01-11 | Be our advisor, please! |
2020-12-21 | Why do we need this transparency? For fairness! For learning! |
2020-11-23 | You want to build some muscle but do not want to use your time exercising? I can help by exercising for you! |
2020-11-18 | Feedback to feedback |
2020-11-15 | General comments on participant's performance in a competition |
2020-11-04 | Yes, 1200+ personalized versions of the test paper! |
2020-02-18 | Let students focus on learning, teachers on teaching, and thus together achieve the intended learning outcomes. |
2020-02-10 | Online learning requires Discipline, DISCIpline, DISCIPLINE! |
2019-01-15 | Supposedly not difficult to get a B grade. |
2018-12-11 | This quality is more important than grades. |
2018-11-15 | Late dropping |
2018-11-15 | Unreliability of average SETL scores due to the high non-response rate |
2018-11-13 | Let go! |
2018-10-24 | No, please do not use my lecture time for your society's announcement. |
2018-09-26 | Scheduling an appointment |
2018-08-27 | None of my business |
2018-08-21 | Course evaluation bounds and response rate |
2018-08-09 | Be a responsible job applicant |
2018-02-10 | No calories browsing.... |
2018-01-24 | Would "uncertain" help your postgraduate study application? I would say, CERTAINLY NOT! |
2017-09-14 | When helping your friend is NOT HELPING YOUR FRIEND! |
2017-09-13 | My life as a student -- AGAIN |
2017-09-05 | You like easy grade, easy honor, easy graduation? |
2017-07-18 | My Facebook friends, please protect me just as I protect you. |
2017-07-12 | An internship |
2016-03-01 | You know me. But, do I know you? |
2015-12-17 | Why learning fails to happen despite the great design of the course and the great teacher? |
2015-10-20 | Can I trust you, my friend? |
2015-10-17 | If we have the second chance to "retake", failing or getting a low grade would not be so stressful. |
2015-09-18 | My first-hand experience on why learning is not taking place in lectures! |
2015-08-20 | Are you sure Econometrics is useless? |
2015-05-04 | Eating 100 bowls of rice in a day |
2015-01-31 | You say you love me. How can I tell whether you truly love me? |
2014-10-24 | I would be happy to write recommendations letter for your PhD or Master application if .... |
2014-10-23 | Master of Finance at MIT |
2014-10-06 | Are you sure what you saw was black? |
2014-03-05 | GOLDEN opportunity -- only to the hard-working students. |
2014-03-01 | What to do when your teacher's teaching style does not fit your learning style? |
2013-11-28 | A negative experience? Not completely. It can be made into a positive one! |
2013-11-27 | Many thanks for your appreciation of my teaching (II) |
2013-07-23 | My next stop is Barcelona! |
2013-06-01 | Her decision to pursue Master of Finance after her undergradaute study at HKU |
2012-11-10 | What should I do at HKU (activities versus study and many other things)? |
2011-09-12 | Coach, can you teach me to swim? |
2010-02-18 | How government policy with good intention can create frustration and political instability? |
2009-12-01 | Cherish our beloved ones who are still around us -- when we still can! |
2009-11-27 | Trust your teachers, but don't trust them blindly! |
2009-11-26 | You can give me a low score but please write some comments to help me improve my teaching. |
2009-08-26 | The similarity in health care service provision and fire fighting service provision |
2009-03-23 | Be brave. Visit your teachers. Ask them questions. Your teachers are a lot nicer than you think. |
2009-03-14 | How can you verify this is really you -- Dr. Ka-fu Wong of HKU? |
2009-03-09 | I dream to work in the business sector. Should I pursue a master degree before I join the private sector? |
2009-02-19 | Any economist can predict this... Can you? |
2008-12-21 | My students performed poorly in the final exam.
Help me help them.... please. |
2008-12-20 | Learning should not end with the final exam! |
2008-11-19 | Exchange in Europe can be very rewarding! |
2008-11-18 | UC Berkeley is my top choice for exchange! |
2008-11-02 | Why did we not have fresh mushrooms twenty years ago? |
2008-02-23 | Dialogue is preferred to monologue. |
2008-02-13 | If I were a single unemployed old man who lives on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) |
2007-12-17 | Is forecasting a pure guessing game? |
2007-12-16 | I want zero emission of CO2! |
2007-11-30 | How would I choose universities for exchange? |
2007-11-28 | Excuse me. Can you write a recommendation letter for me? |
2007-11-12 | No pain, no gain! |
2007-09-14 | Teaching is to be enjoyed, and so is studying. Grades should only be secondary. |