February 2002 Issue
Student Study Skills Tips
By Lucy MacDonald, Chemeketa Community College
Email: lucy@chemeketa.edu
How my erasers saved my grade!
"I was shocked to have done all that studying only to get a D on my first test!" one of our nursing students complained. So the study skills instructor sat down with the nursing student to review the test. The first step was to list all the question numbers that were wrong. The second step was to analyze and categorize the types of wrong answers. The first kind of wrong answer to look at was "the changed answer". We listed the number of questions that the student had wrong and the percentage of these that we originally correct, but she had used her erasure to change to the wrong answer.
Imagine the students surprise when 80% of the wrong answers had been changed!!! That's right. She had them correct in the first place, but got nervous and changed her answer! The student was devasted and then amazed. I asked her how she would like to have 80% of her wrong answers correct on the next test. She jumped at the chance. Then I told her to turn in all her erasers to me! No eraser. No change answer. Result: better test scores!!
Lucy
Lucy Tribble MacDonald, M.A.,M.A.
Oregon Technology Infusion Project (OTIP)
Project Coordinator
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