My short-term elementary algebra class is drawing to a close. For the midterm I tried a new exam strategy that I really liked. I teach a 2-hour block that meets 4 days a week. On a Tuesday students spent the first hour working on problems from Chapters 1 and 2, and we went over the solutions during the second hour. On the next day we repeated the pattern for Chapters 3 & 4. On the Thursday students were given instant credit for any objective they got correct on the first two days. They only worked on problems they missed the first two days – whether they left it blank or made even the most minor mistake.

The results of the midterm were very encouraging. Through the first two days students were able to zero in on the problems they needed to improve on, and they learned from their mistakes. For example, one student missed 8 problems over the first two days. On some of the problems the student made minor arithmetic errors or made errors with notation and those were easily corrected on Thursday. On other problems the student had major conceptual gaps and was able to focus just on those topics rather than trying to get ready for 25 questions. The student in mind ended up fixing all the errors, mastered the missing concepts, and earned 100% on the exam.

This week is the week of the final exam and we proceeded the same way: Chapters 5-7 on Tuesday, Chapters 1-4 on Wednesday, Final Exam on Thursday (tomorrow). In a foundation class, like elementary algebra, students have a hard time determining where to focus their time. This strategy really helps with that problem.