Testing Information

All exams, including the final exam, are objective, multiple-choice question exams.

• Exams are based on the learning objectives students are expected to master.

  • The exam questions will be drawn exclusively from the textbook, Economics Today: The Macro View.

• There will be ten learning objectives listed for each chapter.

• Each learning objective will have 10 or more questions connected to it by the testing program used in this course.

  • That program will randomly choose one question from each group of ten for the exam.

  • For example, if an exam is 40 questions long like the exams for this course, then there will be 10 ways to select the first question, ten ways to select the second question, and so on to the fortieth question.

    • The number of different exams this program can generate for one midterm/unit exam is 10⁴⁰. One billion is 1 followed by 9 zeros. 10⁴⁰ is 1 followed by 40 zeros.

The exams over each Unit assigned will include ten questions over each chapter assigned for each Unit -- forty questions in all.

• The questions will appear on the exams in the order in which the chapters were assigned for the Unit.

  • For example, on the first exam, the first ten questions will cover Chapter 1, the next ten will cover Chapter 2, the third ten will cover Chapter 3, and the last ten will cover Chapter 4.

• Indeed the questions will be numbered in exactly the same way as the learning objectives the questions are associated with are numbered.

The midterm/unit exams will be administered over the Internet through the course's Blackboard site.

• You will find them in a folder under the tab for "Exams" on Blackboard.

• These exams are "take-home" exams.

The online midterm/unit exams will also be timed.

• You will have 60 minutes to answer 40 questions.

Once again, the midterm exams will be given on the Blackboard internet course platform used by ACC, so students will need to sign on to Blackboard in order to take the exams.

Students will have the opportunity to re-test each exam twice.

• Students do not have to re-test at all.

  • If a student is satisfied with his score after the initial attempt, he can stop there.

  • If a second or third try is made, the last attempt will completely overwrite (erase) previous efforts.

    • The results of the last re-test will be used in determining your grade. This means there is some risk in re-taking an exam since you could do worse. This risk is intentional. I put it there hoping that it would give you some incentive to re-study the material if you decide to re-take an exam. Of course, you could do much better on the re-test. If you do, I will use that result to calculate your end of the semester grade.

Students will be allowed three attempts on each online, mid-term exam--the initial attempt and two re-tests.

• Blackboard allows these exams to be re-set without the permission of or action by your instructor.

• If you want to take a re-test:

  • Go to Exams and the folder that contains the exam you want to re-test.

  • Click on the link for that exam, and a message window will pop up asking you if you really want to re-test.

  • If you indicate that you do want to re-test, then the old grade will be removed and you will be allowed to re-test.

  • Your score on the re-test will completely replace your old score on the exam. To be clear, your old grade will be replaced by the new re-test grade. But you can still review the previous attempts by clicking on the most recent grade in "My Grades." A list of your attempts on the exam will be shown on screen. Click on the one you want to review.

You should take the exams no later than the listed date.

• Review the dates on the deadlines webpage.

  • However, all exams will be available on Blackboard for re-testing purposes through August 11.

• The Final Exam will be available in ACC Testing Centers until an hour before they close. There is no re-testing on the final, though a Practice Final Exam is available.