Getting "points back" on a test

Nursing Students General Students

Published

So we have one professor this semester who will go over our exams with us after we have all taken it, and often will sometimes decide to give points back to students if the choice they picked "made sense" or if she realizes she didn't give us the information she'll give the whole class the question. However I have found that it is usually the same students who often can "debate" a question enough to get the points for a question they got incorrect, while other students often do not get points back. I often get the "difficult" questions correct so when the teacher gives the points back, my grade doesn't change much.

My question is this: is it worth it for me to ask the professor why she gives points back when some students complain about a question when others dont? I get frustrated because I usually get Bs or As while some students get lower Bs and Cs to begin with but end up with the same grade as me or better after they get these "points back" on questions I studied hard to get right the first time I took the test. I feel like I almost get cheated out of having a better grade. I don't want my classmates to hate me though, or for my professor to get annoyed at me.

Also, a lot of times the choice they get "points" back for will have killed a patient....I don't understand how they can get points back for an answer that would have killed a patient in real life, while other students try to get points back for a question they got wrong but whose "incorrect" answer wouldn't have killed a patient.

Should I just keep my head down and be happy with my grades? If i sound like a spoil sport I'm sorry, its just been really frustrating for me lately....

No, basic arithmetic doesn't work like that. As an example, greatly simplified:

You have a test with ten questions, each worth ten points. You get them all right, 100 points. Five are thrown out, and the remaining ones are re-weighted. How much is each remaining question worth? Right, twenty points. You have all five right ...100 points.

Fewer questions, same 100-point scale, questions are worth more.

If you had a 70% for getting 7 /10 right, and they threw out five, of which you got two right (you got the other three wrong anyway), your new score would be ... 5/5, 100 points. If they threw out 6, and you got one of the remaining 4 wrong, your score is now ...75%.

If you still get points for the ones you got right all along, in every case, you get more points, not fewer, on a percentage basis, when questions are removed from the test pool.

I mentioned could bring the score down.. continue with your example --- there are 10 questions and I miss 2.. i make an 80. 2 of them get thrown out and I got both of them correct.. now there are 8 questions and I still missed 2 and now I have a 75.

Specializes in psych/dementia.
I mentioned could bring the score down.. continue with your example --- there are 10 questions and I miss 2.. i make an 80. 2 of them get thrown out and I got both of them correct.. now there are 8 questions and I still missed 2 and now I have a 75.

This happened to me a couple of times. The professor said something like "It didn't make a big difference to those who got them right and it helped everyone who missed them." EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS THOUGH!!!!

This happened to me a couple of times. The professor said something like "It didn't make a big difference to those who got them right and it helped everyone who missed them." EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS THOUGH!!!!

Yes - last semester it happened to me as well... she threw out a couple of questions and my score actually went down (a few of us had that happen) she then added those points back as "bonus points" so that it would indeed only raise scores and not drop them.

I mentioned could bring the score down.. continue with your example --- there are 10 questions and I miss 2.. i make an 80. 2 of them get thrown out and I got both of them correct.. now there are 8 questions and I still missed 2 and now I have a 75.

No, because you don't lose points if you got them right in the first place. You will always gain points if you got them wrong and then they didn't count.

No, because you don't lose points if you got them right in the first place. You will always gain points if you got them wrong and then they didn't count.

I promise you it happened to me.. my score went down.. she eliminated the questions from the test bank and the computer re weighted the remaining questions as if the eliminated questions were never there.. then it didn't matter weather I got them correct or incorrect. In essence instead of taking a 10 question quiz, it was only an 8 question quiz.

For future exams if she ever decided some test questions were "bad" questions - she simply left the question in the bank and manually added the points for anyone who got it wrong.. assuring that anyone score would not go down.

-fin

Sounds like she's just awful at this.

So! follow up! our other professor (who is the "boss" or head of our program") does the item analysis thing that others have mentioned on this thread but does it on her own time and not in class so that no one can argue or complain. And she only threw out two questions because the majority got it wrong and deecided to accept two answers for another question. HOWEVER, she also gave those of us who got the question initially right extra points, so that we still have higher grades than those she "helped out." I love this method much more because she helped my classmates who needed it (most of them failed), but I don't feel like i'm getting screwed either. I wish my other professor I was first speaking about would use this method, but im too scared to bring it up and offend her.

This semester is the first time I've ever had a teacher that did a test review like that (and it's my last semester), and I personally hate the subjective push. Before this semester, it was always by statistical analysis, and they used an objective ruling. So there were questions that stood and ones that didn't, and it was the end of the story, regardless of the individual students that wanted a higher grade.

Adding the ability for students to challenge some on their own grounds had made it really murky and biased, and I hate it, because I, too, work hard for passing scores, and hate the fact that many people have been pushed through that wouldn't have passed otherwise.

So glad that I'm done after this semester, can't lie.

+ Add a Comment