Specifically, we offered a peer-tutoring program to students who scored 50% or lower on the first introductory biology exam and assessed the impact of this program on exam performance; student perception of biology as a discipline, using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey in Bio (CLASS-Bio; Semsar et al., 2011); and persistence.
"David Colburn would not pass an introductory accounting exam," said Allan B. Koltin, an old friend who is now a consultant to accounting and law firms.
To address the concern that ICB's emphasis on interpreting original biological data to develop conceptual understanding (i.e., the scientific process) resulted in students learning less factual content compared with their peers using a traditional textbook, we asked both student populations a series of multiple-choice questions characteristic of a traditional introductory biology exam.
Pre-exam quizzing utilizing an online platform seems to be an effective way to increase student performance on introductory biology exams, and quiz averages serve to give students feedback as to potential exam performance.
Their multiple-choice questions were not the simple knowledge and understanding (Bloom's levels 1 2) questions typical of introductory biology exams, but required higher-level processing skills.
This suggests that the level of difficulty was higher for the material evaluated by our introductory biology exams; this could have an impact on the ability for collaborative testing to significantly improve retention of this material.
Before they can attempt it, they must have completed the introductory course, certification exam and advanced sommelier exam.
In large introductory science courses, exams are primarily multiple choice.
Students who struggle on the first exam in introductory biology typically fail to improve significantly over the remainder of the semester (Jensen and Moore, 2008).
For example, in a study by Deslauriers et al. (2012), students who performed poorly on the first exam in an introductory physics or introductory oceanography course received an email invitation to meet with the course professor to discuss their current study strategies and reflect on how they might improve them.
