Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Writing the Test
[This is what A.I. gave me when I asked for a picture of Wallace Shawn writing a Crim Law final. I'm not sure we should trust A.I. with a lot of important tasks quite yet]
Yesterday I gave my first-year criminal law students their midterm exam, which always makes me nervous, for some reason-- even though I'm not the one taking the test. I suppose that what I worry about is that it will be a lousy test.
People don't really think about that, but a test is something we write, and some are better-written than others. A good test will be fair, cover material that is near the center of what was actually taught, and create differentiation between students. It's not easy to do, actually, and I remember a lot of poorly-constructed tests from my student days.
I think this one was pretty good, based on the initial reactions. I had time to work on it quite a bit, which helps. But I won't know for sure until I get all the scores, to see if I get a nice bell curve....
