Sometimes the professor is learning too

So I gave my first physics exam today.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I want to be a good professor, and I want to be fair. I wanted to make sure my students were adequately prepared for the exam. I let them have a cheat sheet so they wouldn't have to worry about memorizing a zillion equations. I gave them a practice test so they'd know what the format of the test was like: 12 multiple choice, 3 problems to work (only 2 would be graded, their choice). It was in class, so a 50-minute time limit. (Could maybe push it to 55 or 57.)

The multiple choice questions for the two exams (practice and real) were taken from the same test bank. I was very, very careful to include the same number of problems from each chapter and the same number of conceptual vs. calculation questions. (Like, really careful. As in "Two calculation and 1 conceptual from chapter 2; 1 calculation and 2 conceptual from chapter 3..." etc.)

The three short answer questions were distributed as follows. Practice: (1) (stationary) block on a ramp; (2) projectile; (3) relative velocities. Exam: (1) (moving) block on a ramp; (2) projectile; (3) vector addition. Admittedly, the block on a ramp problem for the real exam was probably harder than on the practice, but the vector addition problem was way easier than the relative velocity problem. And they only had to do two short answer; I figured it evened out.

We started the exam.

Fifty-five minutes later, not one single student had finished.

Uh oh.

Soon I had to call time, the next class was beating down the door.

I had a collection of students follow me to my office, as they were totally freaking out. (Rightfully so. I probably would have too.) Including two of my best students who have consistently been scoring extremely high on the homework sets. We talked about things for a few minutes, and I told them that I would think about it and do something. But I assured them that I *would* do something, and I wouldn't fail them all.

I considered a few options as to what to do: give them more time Monday...just curve it very generously...let them redo short answer problems they missed for half credit.... I got some advice from the prof in the office next to mine (he is truly a seasoned professor and very experienced). I was leaning towards letting them redo the short answer problems that they missed, but he strongly recommended against that. And while I initially liked the option of giving them more time on Monday....that just doesn't seem feasible when I actually stopped to think about it. (For so many reasons.)

The test was just clearly too long. In the past I've heard and used the rule of thumb that I should give them at least twice as much time as it takes me to do it. The prof I talked to said that is not enough time for these types of tests....that I need to gauge about 5 times as long. Oh. Well...now we know.

I feel really terrible for putting my students through such torture. Teaching physics is such a different beast than I'm used to. I'm learning lots of things. But I am learning, and next time will be better.

Later in the afternoon I had the multiple choice section graded. The distribution, remarkably, was still roughly Gaussian (bell-curve shaped), peaking at 8/12 (67%). Obviously a bit lower than I'd like, but not horrible. (High score was 11/12.) I haven't graded the short answer (which is likely to be worse, since many of the students didn't have time to get to it), but it seems to me that a generous curve is definitely the way to go.

Although honestly, I'm a little scared to face my students Monday morning. I think they might all hate me right now.