For centuries, courses in the humanities and social sciences have culminated with handwritten tests. In addition to providing a basis for evaluation of students’ performance, these exams provided some practical experience in writing memos for employment. Many jobs require written documentation or evaluation, and a student who did well in essay tests would be better positioned for success in many forms of employment.

The invention of personal computers dramatically changed business practices. Very few businesses still rely on handwritten memos. Most businesses record information in digital form. Yet at Touro written exams continue to be used in most courses in the humanities and social sciences. These exams train students in an outdated work medium that no longer corresponds to business practices.

Seven years ago, I gave my last handwritten exam. Ever since, all my exams have been given in digital form. This has allowed me to dramatically improve the speed and quality of feedback to students, and also to provide students practice in rapid response writing that is often demanded in modern employment. I believe that every professor who gives a handwritten exam is wasting a valuable opportunity to train his students for excellence in future employment.

This article sets forth the principles that guide my exam procedures, and the specific ways I translate them into exam preparation, administration and grading. I welcome comments from other faculty members about both my exam principles and the way that I apply them.

I. Determining Exam Questions

While there are many job tasks that require writing, I focus on four: description, textual explanation, comparison, and evaluation. I utilize four types of questions that are directed at training students to develop these skills.

Employers often ask for straightforward written explanations. These require employees to discuss the details of specific items. This is what students do when they explain ideas or phenomena. On many exams I ask students to explain the meaning and significance of items we have covered in class. I usually ask for 2-3 sentences so students can show that they know what the item is and also why it is meaningful.

Employers also ask for interpretation of written material, whether a complaint from a customer or an explanation of a warranty. On my political theory and constitutional law exams I provide quotations from the readings and ask the students to (1) identify the author and (2) explain the quotation. This requires students to read closely and also learn to recognize the writing styles of various authors. Students get separate points for identifying the author and explaining the text, and they need not know the author to get full credit for explaining the quotation.

Employers also ask for written comparisons between items or processes. I use two types of questions to develop these skills. Compare X with Y is a traditional format that gives students the opportunity to identify similarities and differences between two concepts or phenomena. Often I utilize a more structured question that asks students to explain what is similar and what is different between two items.

Finally, employees are often asked to write evaluations to recommend a decision or support one that has already been made. This is the traditional essay question that sets forth a criterion and asks students to evaluate ideas or phenomena according to that phenomena. These questions test students’ reasoning skills and their ability to proceed from observations to conclusions.

Notably absent from this list are multiple-choice questions. I do not believe these provide any employment-based skills unless they also ask for an explanation of the student’s choice. I believe they provide little basis for evaluating students’ knowledge since unlike the above questions a student with no knowledge of the course material can still make lucky guesses and get credit for knowledge they do not possess. Furthermore, I have found that it takes far longer to write correct and incorrect but credible answers than it does to write the four types of questions that I use on my exams.

II. Preparing Students for Examinations

Because different professors have different ways of evaluating exam answers, I provide my students in every course with a comprehensive review sheet that includes the instructions for every type of question I ask, the number of points available for each question, and the extent of choice among answers. For each question type, I provide at least three sample questions, and ask the students to write sample answers in preparation for a review session, which I hold for every exam (often via Zoom). To avoid the implication that the students need not study subjects addressed in sample questions, I always include one or two of the sample questions on the exam—and I tell the student this so they pay attention as we discuss each sample question.

Here’s a sample section from a review sheet for my public administration course:

Part Two: 35 points. Choose 7 of 10 pairs of terms. Explain each item a sentence. Then explain what the terms have in common as well as the basis for the difference between them. Each answer is worth up to 5 points.  

Sample questions:

1. auxiliary staff v. control staff
2. capital budget v. expense budget
3. bureaucratic drift v. coalitional drift

Providing the students with sample questions helps them understand what I want in a full-credit answer. Here, I am looking for a one sentence explanation of each item (total two sentences), as well as a sentence explaining at least one similarity as well as the reason for the difference between the items. This prevents the students from merely repeating the definitions in the second part of their answer. For example, a good answer to question two would indicate that expense items are expected to be paid out of current revenues while capital items are usually amortized across a significant number of years.

I also give the students choice on almost every section of my exams. Usually they must answer about 70% of the questions in each section. This reduces the risk of memory failure and also forces students to determine the subjects on which they have the most knowledge. I do not give extra credit for answering more than the required number of questions so the students must think about what they know (and can communicate) and what they don’t.

On occasion, I will give a mandatory essay question, but when I do I will identify the subject of that question on the review sheet so the students can think about the topic in advance. Here’s the last section of the public administration review sheet:

Part Four: 36 points. Choose 2 of 3 questions, and write an essay of approximately one page in length for each question you choose. Each essay is worth up to 18 points.

The questions in this section focus on three issues discussed extensively in class. You should think about how you would address questions on these topics:

1. Control groups and prison reform litigation
2. “Contracting in” and parks conservancies
3. Chevron deference and repeated changes in environmental regulations

To help guide students in studying for these questions, I provide a list of topics that will be covered on the exam. There were 88 topics listed for the public administration exam, which covered the entire semester. I prepare this list as I review my notes in preparation for writing the exam, and edit out most (but not all) of the ones that will not be tested.

Finally, to assist students in allocating their time on exams, I make the total amount of available points equal to the length of the exam in minutes. Students then know that they should spend five minutes on a five-point question, 18 minutes on an 18-point essay, etc. All final exams are two hours long and have 120 points. The number of points on midterms varies with the length of the exam.

III. Administering Exams

At the beginning of each semester, I inform students that all of their work (exams, outlines, papers) will be submitted in digital form in a Word document. I tell them they must have regular access to a laptop computer or tablet for their paper(s), and must bring a digital device to their exam(s). Almost every student today owns such a device, and the few that don’t usually have friends or family members from whom they can borrow. In an emergency, students can take the exam on the computer in the classroom if it is situated so that other students cannot see their work. And I bring extra paper in case someone’s computer fails during the exam.

I also inform them that all exams must be typed and submitted in digital form, and that if they are very slow typists they should begin practicing so that their typing speed does not result in a lower grade. Being able to type quickly is an important job skill, and requiring students to learn touch typing provides worthwhile preparation for most jobs. I encourage students to practice by typing their notes rather than writing them.

I uploaded my exams to Blackboard or Canvas, and time their release for the exact minute the class is scheduled to begin. This allows the students to download the full exam and insert their answers directly after the questions, which saves time in grading. I also bring paper copies to the exam in case of internet failure, and distribute these copies as the test begins so that students can look over the questions as they access their exam from the Canvas platform. I allow the students to keep the paper copies of exams but most see no reason to since (as discussed below) they will soon receive their full graded exam with the questions embedded.

During the test, I monitor the students to make sure that they are not accessing their files or the internet. When the exam is over, I have every student save their file in Word document and email it to me. I require them to wait until I receive their exam and open it to make sure it is readable. In case of internet failure, I bring a flash drive so that students can upload their exams directly from their computer. I open each student’s file to make sure it is readable before I allow the student to leave the exam.

IV. Grading Exams

My principal concern in grading is avoiding biased evaluations. Ideally, this would mean that all exams are identified only by a number so that they are graded without my knowledge of the student. I have not adopted this practice yet since I have developed an alternative method that I believe significantly reduces bias in grading.

When I download exams, I save each in a Word folder with a sequential number followed by the exam type and year. The first exam is identified as 1, the second as 2, etc. After I have downloaded all exams, I open them all up before I begin grading. I begin with a randomly-selected exam and read and grade the answer to question 1. I repeat the process for all other exams that answered question 1. Then I move onto question 2 and start with a different exam. Throughout the grading process, I have no knowledge of how any student is doing because I do not total the sums of points awarded until I have finished with all exams. Since the exams are identified only by number, I do not know who the student is until after I have totaled up the scores of all exams and am ready to enter them in my gradebook.

When I read an answer, I open the review function in Word and add a comment with the number of points awarded. If the answer receives full credit, I usually add no other comments unless the answer is particularly comprehensive or well-written. If I give less than full credit, I usually make a brief mention of the reason I did not award more points. “Second half incorrect,” “failed to identify similarity,” and “needs more specificity” are comments I often make. For essay questions, I usually write a couple of sentences to justify what is admittedly a more subjective grade.

After I have read and graded all questions, I total up the points for each student and set the grading curve. I usually have a general sense of what an A or A- would be, but I take into account how the students did overall on the test and try to avoid breaking up clustered grades when I set grade brackets (e.g. 83-85 = A-). For example, if I have two 85s and an 86, I would try to avoid setting a grade bracket that would separate these three grades.

I believe that student interest in learning from mistakes on exams decreases over time. The day after the exam, students are often quite interested in how they did on each question. A week later, they have usually moved on to other matters and principally care only about the final letter grade. Therefore, my regular practice is to grade and return all exams within 24 hours of when the exam begins. This deadline forces me to grade efficiently and avoids the procrastination problems that beset many professors. Since it takes me about 30-35 minutes on average to grade an exam, this means I set aside the appropriate amount of time the evening of an exam or the morning after to complete grading and commenting on all exams and assigning course grades to the students.

When I return exams to students, I email them their exam with embedded marks and comments, plus a summary of their scores on each section at the end of the exam and (if relevant) their final grade in the course. Since students receive the complete exam, they can easily reread the questions that they answered, and see where they missed points. Students have told me that they really appreciate knowing their grade promptly and being able to see how they did on each question. Reviewing the exam is often their last experience in the course, and having access to full information helps solidify or correct the knowledge they had when they were studying. When feedback is delayed, incorrect information they learn is harder to correct, especially if the student only looks at the overall grade they received.

Giving digital exams is far superior to what can be accomplished with handwritten exams. Unless a professor takes the time to scan each exam and email it to each student, those students will never get them back unless they make an appointment to review the exam. Furthermore, since most exams are not intended to be seen by students, most professors made no comments on individual answers and only indicate the number of points received on particular questions. The overall grade on an exam provides students with little feedback on their exam performance, and even less if all they ever see is their final grade in the course.

Summing up

Not only are online exams more environmentally friendly, they give students practical experience in producing analytical work on a deadline. The additional experience they get in practicing speed typing also develops a useful job skill. These benefits are in addition to the practical advantages that digital exams provide: faster return, questions linked to answers, and comments and grades provided on each question. Overall, I believe that digital exams are far superior to the alternative, and that all professors should consider changing their exam practices to maximize the benefits they provide to their students.