Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

A note to the upper-years, I agree with some points you have statet but not all. Afterall, you can't compare this year and last-year's exam (or any other year) fairly, unless you actually wrote BOTH.

There's truth to your point, but I had Dr. Kim for psych 1A03 and 1x03 over two subsequent years. The complaints in this thread, difficulty, lack of time, unclear questions were all brought up in the years I took Dr Kim's tests as well. He has a very clear style of questioning and while there may have been some unfair questions I don't know about, I'm sure he didn't deviate from his usual testing.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

A note to the upper-years, I agree with some points you have statet but not all. Afterall, you can't compare this year and last-year's exam (or any other year) fairly, unless you actually wrote BOTH.

Every single year, I hear whining of "People had it easier last year!" for nearly all of my courses. Except in 3rd/4th year courses where people have learned to suck it up and use the time complaining for studying/working on assignments.

There will be bad tests in university, but the best thing to do is learn from your mistakes and move on. I got a 60 something on a 40% midterm but somehow ended up with an 11 in the course. Focus your energies on future things instead of dwelling on a single test out of your university career. In the long run, it really won't matter that much.

A lot of people are saying they got a bunch of "Non of the above" answers... I only got 1 or 2. This is kinda freaking me out right now.... :S

Haha, yeah I got quite a few.

No point trying to find out whether they were right or not, might as well wait until the official results come out.

Originally Posted by IbrahimH

A lot of people are saying they got a bunch of "Non of the above" answers... I only got 1 or 2. This is kinda freaking me out right now.... :S

There could be different versions of a test or they could be wrong.

Try not to dwell on things until you get the actual results.

Yeahh, I agree on the time given to us. It was too short, perhaps another half an hour would be great.
But I have to admit that the midterm was tricky.

Originally Posted by Jay

There will be bad tests in university, but the best thing to do is learn from your mistakes and move on. I got a 60 something on a 40% midterm but somehow ended up with an 11 in the course. Focus your energies on future things instead of dwelling on a single test out of your university career. In the long run, it really won't matter that much.

This is such great advice!

If you didn't do as well as you thought you would, or thought you should, don't waste your energy worrying and stressing about it! Try to figure out what you can learn from it. How can you study better next time? How can you be better prepared for the type of questions that the prof might ask? How can you actually plan your time during the exam/test better? How can you try to improve your studies overall today? Tomorrow? Next week? For finals? You get the picture.

If you blew the midterm, it's not a disaster. You have an opportunity (lots of them) to do great things at university

I'm a second year, so not quite an upper year and 1 year up from most people in the course, so let me throw in my random thought.s i thought the exam was fair. i was acutally impressed at how much i was made to think. i definitely didnt feel like was asked to just regurgitate from memory.

as for practise qs, its actually amazing that we get full questions provided for us not only with the answers, but ALSO with actual explanations for each option! this is actually amazing and for first years, you will not see this in any other course, so don't count on it.


I saw this posted on the actual PSYCH 1x03 ELM board by an upper year. take a read to get some good perspective:


I'm going to throw my two cents in here.

I am graduating this spring and I can tell all of you that while you are at McMaster you are going to have tests that are harder, longer, more complicated, and worth more then the midterm we wrote last night.

35 multiple choice questions in one hour is plenty of time, you just need to allocate it appropriately. When I was in second year I wrote a 3 hour Intro to Microbiology exam that had 120 multiple choice and then 30 written answers varying between definition, short and long/essay answer. Same thing with the Organic Chemistry midterms 30-40 multiple choice and then several 10-20 mark long answer questions. And trust me, those questions take a lot longer to answer

As for the practice questions, they are great resource to have and use. Of course they aren't going to be exactly like the questions on the test because that doesn't show that you know anything. Secondly, the majority of professors don't even give out practice questions, its a privilege, not a right.

Dr. Kim does an amazing job of giving us all the help that we get through practice questions and the web modules. Very few courses in the upper years provide the amount of student support and resources I've seen in this class. If you are expecting every class to be like this one, you are in for a BIG shocker. You're in University now!

I figure I'd post to show another side.

I didn't find time an issue at all - I could have left after half an hour if I wanted, but stayed for an extra 15 to triple check.

I might be my background coming into university (I'm the fastest test taker I know, always have been. Last year, for SL history paper two, we had to write two full essays in an hour and a half. Both of them were over 7 pages when I was done), but this midterm was exceedingly fair, and we were given waaaay more resources than we should have gotten. The questions were not long nor difficult to understand - the bolding made it really quick to read.

Anyway, like I said, i don't know if it's my bakground or my test-style (just being naturally fast without compromising correctness, if you can call it a style) but I didn't have an issue with it.

Sure, I don't know how I actually did, but my point is I didn't think it was unreasonably hard or long while I wrote it. I think most of the issue is people coming for highschool and never being exposed to actually thinking through things and making connections (again, my background gave me a lot of practice in that, so I think I have a bit of an advantage), as opposed ot the length or difficulty of the test itself.

Long story short, I think the major issue is the transition from highschool to university, not how mean Dr.Kim is.

Perhaps.

I just find it weird how most people in the end found Chemistry, Biology and Math much easier than Psychology. Assuming Psychology is at the right level (which it seems to be - not impossible but challenging), Chemistry Bio and Math midterms were all wayyyyy too easy.

Keep in mind, the people you usually here from are the ones who didn't do well. you'll never hear the top half of the class jumping all over the boards shouting how great the exam was. you're always going to have more negative than positive posts!

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Perhaps.

I just find it weird how most people in the end found Chemistry, Biology and Math much easier than Psychology. Assuming Psychology is at the right level (which it seems to be - not impossible but challenging), Chemistry Bio and Math midterms were all wayyyyy too easy.

No.
They all test different skill sets.
Being mathematically inclined or being more comfortable with procedural work does not mean you are comfortable with questions that test a deeper inferential understanding that is entirely non mathematical.

That is a good skill to have, but it's not a necessary skill for every program.

And just before somebody else touches on this: Neither form of learning is smarter or integral. They're both just complementary and valuable to have.

Originally Posted by Fight0

I don't get why so many people are complaining (There was similar complaints in the years I took the intro psych courses too); the first year psych courses are bird.

I think high school just conditioned too many people into not thinking about questions.

I am finding the biggest difference between university and high school to be the fact it's not just memorizing a bunch of facts and piecing it together. You're actually having to think about things and apply theories to multiple situations. I'm actually finding the science courses I am taking easier than the psych class and I only have grade 10 applied science under my belt.

Originally Posted by Melpomene

I am finding the biggest difference between university and high school to be the fact it's not just memorizing a bunch of facts and piecing it together. You're actually having to think about things and apply theories to multiple situations. I'm actually finding the science courses I am taking easier than the psych class and I only have grade 10 applied science under my belt.

Yupp, that's how universities work. Welcome to Mac!

Originally Posted by Melpomene

I am finding the biggest difference between university and high school to be the fact it's not just memorizing a bunch of facts and piecing it together. You're actually having to think about things and apply theories to multiple situations. I'm actually finding the science courses I am taking easier than the psych class and I only have grade 10 applied science under my belt.

psychology IS a science class. The dept is in the faculty of science. i'm pretty sure you need this course and bio to take the term 2 one.