Potential Danger in Pre-populating Exam Note Sheets with Formulas

摘要

In previous work, I allowed students in my introductory physics course to write note sheets to prepare for exams, and I analyzed the contents as a way of determining what students saw as important in my course. In the present study, I tried a new note sheet approach where I supplied some equations for their notes in advance, thinking that doing so would focus students on other important conceptual aspects of the course. In all cases, I gave a brief survey to get student perspectives on their exam preparation. In addition, I introduced an online pre-exam forum asking students to respond to two short questions about how they might prepare their notes for the exam.