Author: Emily Farris (Texas Christian University).
The second question I used to fear was “is this going on the test?” I used to fear the question “do you make study guides?” Students are naturally anxious about exams. I try to ease their nerves by giving them access to my PowerPoints and small open book assignments. I also encourage students to talk about the purpose of studying. However, I don’t give students study guides. I want them to be actively involved in the learning process.
Instead, I ask my Introduction to American Politics students to create a study guide for the class. I divide the class into groups and assign each group a unit (e.g. civil liberties). Each group is responsible to create a guide covering the important information. They then test their knowledge on that guide. This is why I love it:
This is a healthy compromise that allows students to have a guide, but I don’t have to do it.
My students ask me questions (multiple answer, short answer, long answer) and give me suggestions for the exam. Multiple choice questions are not something I enjoy writing. They often write very good questions which keeps my exams fresh. They enjoy knowing what the exam will look like – even if I don’t use their exact question, I can often use a fair amount of them (or modify them).
The most important thing is that they can understand how to study by making the guide. Together, students need to ask themselves: What are the key terms? How can we identify major themes/ideas? How can we prioritize knowledge, especially in an introductory class with a lot of knowledge? How do we know if someone is familiar with this material? They work together and discuss these issues. We use Google docs in class, the time before the exam. I can comment on their drafts while they are working on it.
