Pop Quizzes

Anthony Hornof - 1/18/22

To help you learn the course material, the class will have pop quizzes. When you take a test, even a closed-book test, you learn that material. One theory is that, by pulling the information out of your memory during a test, you strengthen your ability to pull that information from your memory in the future, including during the midterm and final exam. To learn from the quizzes, you need to have done at least an initial pass through the assigned reading (ideally using SQ3R), and you need to answer the questions in a disciplined test-like environment. (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)

The Purpose of the Quizzes

The pop quizzes...

  1. Motivate you to do the reading.
  2. Help me to assess your learning
  3. Help you to learn as you take the test. (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)
  4. Familiarizes you with the kinds of questions that will be on the midterm and final exam, thus reducing your stress regarding those exams.
  5. Permit me to see who is coming to class.
  6. Provide you with examples of questions that you could have generated while applying the SQ3R reading technique.

Grading the Quizzes

The quiz will be graded 1 or 0:
1: if you took the quiz in class, or submitted it on Canvas.
0: if you did not take the quiz in class, and did not submit it on Canvas.

Correct answers will be provided in class immediately following each quiz.

Individual student quizzes will be evaluated only to confirm that they were taken. Individualized feedback will not be provided, such as to evaluate the degree of accuracy of individual questions. But correct answers will be provided in class, and each quiz will also state where to go in the reading to find the answer to each question.

Missed Quizzes

If you missed a quiz in class, you have a week to make up the quiz as follows...

Find the quiz in on Canvas under Assignments. Download the PDF from the description of the assignment. Complete the fields in the PDF document and submit it on Canvas for that quiz (under Assignments, not Quizzes).

If a quiz question asks for a drawing, feel free to handle that however you like. For example, you could print out the PDF, take it by hand, and scan and submit the PDF.

Please note that, because of the scoring method used for quizzes, there is no benefit to taking the quiz on Canvas rather than in class, and there is no benefit to looking up the answers if you are taking the quiz on Canvas.

References

Roediger III, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on psychological science, 1(3), 181-210.