Home » blogs » Ben Kaplan's blog

Insider Secrets for Getting Better Grades

My Dec. 14 newspaper column was a fun one to think about: It focused on my lackluster grades during my freshman year at Harvard and what it taught me about being an independent learner.

One strategy that I didn't have room to mention in the article involves procuring course overview materials. To do this, obtain unit and final exams from prior terms that the course has been offered--preferably when it was being taught by the same teacher. This way, as you're learning the material, you'll have a good idea about how you'll eventually be tested upon it.

You can obtain old exams from students who have already taken the class or you can request them from your teacher directly. At some schools (such as Harvard), old exams are filed away in student-accessible binders or posted online.

Don't wait until the night before the final exam to do this. It would defeat the whole purpose. By having these exam references at the beginning of a course, you can figure out as you go along which is the critical material you must learn.

In addition, I've often found that many teachers don't write entirely new exams from previous years. Because of this, you may have already prepared for specific questions (with only minor changes) that will appear on your exams.


By Ben Kaplan at Dec 13 2006 - 11:21pm | | | Ben Kaplan's blog | login or register to post comments

Using old exams

Is it moral to get old exams and use them to study for tests? It seems like, unless the school files the old exams away for student use (as you said Harvard does), finding old tests that have the same questions on them as the teacher is currently using would be a form of cheating.
I ask because my son is in a middle school biology class and I teach biology at a different school. Due to state testing requirements, many of the science teachers in the district test with the same questions.
My son has asked me to share my tests with him so he can practice the material before taking the actual test in his classroom, but I have always refused because it seemed like it would give him an unfair advantage.
Is this actually more common and acceptable then I think?

By Mark at December 22, 2006 - 9:08am | login or register to post comments

RE: Using old exams

That's an interesting question. I'd be eager to hear thoughts from other students and teachers on the subject.

Even in high school, I used to have teachers supply me with old versions of their tests for practice. It was one of the most effective ways to learn. If it was a math test, for instance, the actual numbers on the new exam would definitely be different from the old one even if the form of the question was similar.

Here's another example: The College Board (makers of the SAT tests) actually sells a book of past SAT exams to study from. Sure, the questions are similar year after year, but the specifics (and thus the answers) change. Taking those practice exams is really something all students should do to improve their scores.

So you might consider making practice tests available to all your students and changing the specifics included in the question each time around. Here's another way to look at it: If the state has testing requirements, then those specific requirements are deemed to be among the most important areas for study. If we can help kids better learn those areas (through more practice questions), wouldn't that be a positive thing?


By Ben Kaplan at December 22, 2006 - 9:39am | login or register to post comments