🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 6 Mar 1995, [Joel Tassie] wrote:

> *Should* students be required to memorize physics formulas?

One more afterthought.

Some of us occasionally allow students to bring to the exam (usually a
final) anything they can write on both sides of a 3x5 inch card. They may
write small if they wish. This forces them to determine what is important
enough to put on that little card, and how to write it so they will know
what to do with it. Obviously in such an exam no credit is given for mere
information recall, or recall of the 'right' formula. At the end, we
collect the cards and save them.

I have had several students enthusiastically fill the cards with small
print. Several in my files have the entire course crammed on the cards,
even things from lecture which weren't in the textbook. These are works of
art! Students who do that usually leave the cards on their desks and never
look at them during the exam, because they *know* all that stuff. Some
students are so unfamiliar with the materials of the course that they
can't fill even one side of the card, and do poorly in the exam. One can
learn a lot about how students are studying from reading those cards.

        -- Donald