The Secrets of Academic Success: Secret 2

See: Secret 1 | Secret 2 | Secret 3


Secret #2: Bloom’s Taxonomy (or How Do Profs Write Exams, Anyway?)

Consciously or unconsciously, your professors are guided by a teaching philosophy when writing exams. A philosophy is belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation. There are reasons they (your teachers) do what they do. Believe it or not.

Professors learn these reasons explicitly as part of their graduate training or implicitly through experience.


How do profs write exams? Imagine if you knew that. What power you’d have. You could anticipate types of questions on an exam and you could bend a spoon just with the power of your mind. Well, maybe you wouldn't be able to do that bend-a-spoon thing.

I learned this secret explicitly as part of my graduate teacher training and I guess I use it consciously. At least that is what my syllabus says (see the teaching philosophy section of my syllabus).

I’d recommend you read:
How to Write Better Tests: A Handbook for Improving Test Construction Skills*

Now you know how an exam is written. You did visit and read that site above, right? You have a better understanding of the types of questions. But, what about the content of the questions? You know the how, but where’s the what?


* You may also want to check out Types of Question Based on Bloom's Taxonomy, Revised Bloom's Taxonomy and Bloom's Taxonomy.
(Source of figure above:http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm)


See: Secret 1 | Secret 2 | Secret 3

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