Exam Corrections: A Dual-Purpose Approach

Abstract

It is common for freshmen students to enter Calculus I with a wide range of levels of preparation and mastery of background material. In addition, many of the students struggle with the adjustment from high school to college. In an effort to help the students to solidify their understanding of concepts as they progress through the course, as well as to start to think like test makers instead of simply test takers, we implemented the use of a structured and mandatory post-exam assignment. We present our approach that was designed to help the weaker students to solidify their knowledge of the course material while engaging the students who have a strong background in the development of their study skills.

Keywords:

• Exam corrections
• remediation
• metacognition

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica Libertini

After receiving her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Jessica Libertini worked in industry before realizing she missed the challenge of academia. She went back to school to study fluid mechanics and ultimately earned her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. Still an engineer at heart, the author enjoys working with students as they discover the beauty and power of applying mathematics to understand, analyze, and improve our world. She served on the faculty at The United States Military Academy at West Point and at the University of Rhode Island before joining the Department of Applied Mathematics at Virginia Military Institute.

Caitlin Krul

Caitlin Krul received her B.S. in Mathematics and her B.S. in Education from Salem State University then continued on to graduate school at the University of Rhode Island. There, she had the pleasure of teaching a variety of students in a wide range of classes and was able to realize that she belongs in academia. She enjoys teaching in a way that encourages her students to work together to discover the rules, patterns, and beauty that mathematics offers and is currently teaching at Merrimack College. In September 2016, she will be joining the mathematics department at Worcester State University.

Erica Turner

Erica Turner received her B.A. in Mathematics and her B.A. in Secondary Education at the University of Rhode Island. After graduating, she took masters classes in mathematics while teaching courses for the math department at URI and tutoring a wide range of students. She absolutely loves being in the classroom, molding minds into math nerds like herself. She took a year abroad to teach at a bilingual school in Germany to expand her teaching palette and is currently teaching at Middlebridge School in Narragansett, RI.