What are Exam Previews?

Exam previews represent a general model of creating and delivering exams in which students preview much of an exam's context, meta-information, and format well before they take the exam. Used more widely in the K-12 world (where they are sometimes referenced as exam pre-release), exam previews can elevate summative assessments into richer, fairer, less-anxiety-provoking experiences in any course where much of the final grade is determined via traditional (closed-book and/or time-limited) tests.

Over the last decade, the PI and Co-PI have developed two types of exam previews: Public Exams and Test Question Templates (TQTs). Below are some different links for getting acquainted with each type.

Public Exam resources:

• Video: What is a Public Exam? (5:34)
• Ben's blog post on Public Exams
• PDF files for a Public Exam in a sophomore-level Cell Biology course:
  • preview version
  • final version

TQT resources:

• Video: What is a TQT? (6:58)
• Greg's web page on TQTs
• PDF files for a sophomore-level Human Anatomy course:
  • TQTs on the nervous system
  • exam on the nervous system

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For more information about this project, please contact Principal Investigator Ben Wiggins (bwiggins@shoreline.edu) and/or Co-PI Greg Crowther (gcrowther@everettcc.edu).