Mis Graded event tests

[JoeyC]

So I've comeback from an invitational and found out that some of the tests are misgraded (fast facts and meteorology), what do I do? (or what can I do?) I'm relatively sure that I could've placed if they weren't misgraded.

[Unome]

So I've comeback from an invitational and found out that some of the tests are misgraded (fast facts and meteorology), what do I do? (or what can I do?) I'm relatively sure that I could've placed if they weren't misgraded.

It depends on the tournament. Invitationals have various policies on this, but chances are you will be unable to get any formal correction. It's very uncommon for any event to end up perfectly graded, since there's a lot of time pressure and significant room for error.

[JoeyC]

Ok, thanks

[whythelongface]

Question: what counts as a misgraded test? Is it a test that is graded according to the key, when the key is wrong? Or is it test that just does not follow the key?

[Unome]

Question: what counts as a misgraded test? Is it a test that is graded according to the key, when the key is wrong? Or is it test that just does not follow the key?

The most common mistakes are either incorrect summation (happened to me yesterday in Materials Science) or a question marked incorrectly (just random mistakes when grading quickly).

[SPP SciO]

On one hand, realize that misgraded tests are equally likely to help you as they are to hurt you. Of course, human error that undoes the result of months of hard work is heartbreaking - which is why you won’t see the scores tests from qualifying tournaments as opposed to invitationals, which are learning experiences.

Supervisors know this and (should always) try to make the tests as easy to grade as possible - think multiple choice over short answers, etc. And as a competitor you can do your part - Write clear, capital letters and unambiguous numbers. If you need to write sentences, get right to the point (test graders not impressed by your beautiful prose). Follow all the directions and make sure you’re recording everything where you’re supposed to. If you’re not sure, ask! The easier you make it on the graders, the more likely you are to get a correct score.

[AlphaTauri]

Supervisors know this and (should always) try to make the tests as easy to grade as possible - think multiple choice over short answers, etc.

Hahaha no.

Admittedly, multiple choice is the fastest to grade, but as a testwriter it's absolutely terrible. Not only do I have to come up with (N-1) wrong but reasonable answers, it means that people guessing randomly have a 1 in N chance of being correct based off nothing but blind luck. Also, it's faster for competitors to go through (much easier to pick out the right answer from a list of options than to think of the answer), so I actually have to write more questions to make the test an appropriate length.

Conversely, with short answer I can focus on just writing the question and people are highly unlikely to guess right by random chance, which in turn makes me more confident that my final team rankings are reflective of the amount of knowledge they had and not how much the RNGods were on their side.

Also, my policy on bad handwriting -- though I've rarely had to use it -- is that if I can't read it within a few seconds and neither can any of the other graders, it's wrong.

[Unome]

Admittedly, multiple choice is the fastest to grade, but as a testwriter it's absolutely terrible. Not only do I have to come up with (N-1) wrong but reasonable answers, it means that people guessing randomly have a 1 in N chance of being correct based off nothing but blind luck. Also, it's faster for competitors to go through (much easier to pick out the right answer from a list of options than to think of the answer), so I actually have to write more questions to make the test an appropriate length.

This, definitely. Were it not that I rarely am able to proctor my own tests, I would be able to write, say, 40 good short answer questions instead of 80 multiple choice, and not end up with a bunch of people clustered right above 25% (lol 7-way ties...).

[SPP SciO]

Supervisors know this and (should always) try to make the tests as easy to grade as possible - think multiple choice over short answers, etc.

Hahaha no.

Admittedly, multiple choice is the fastest to grade, but as a testwriter it's absolutely terrible. Not only do I have to come up with (N-1) wrong but reasonable answers, it means that people guessing randomly have a 1 in N chance of being correct based off nothing but blind luck. Also, it's faster for competitors to go through (much easier to pick out the right answer from a list of options than to think of the answer), so I actually have to write more questions to make the test an appropriate length.

Conversely, with short answer I can focus on just writing the question and people are highly unlikely to guess right by random chance, which in turn makes me more confident that my final team rankings are reflective of the amount of knowledge they had and not how much the RNGods were on their side.

Also, my policy on bad handwriting -- though I've rarely had to use it -- is that if I can't read it within a few seconds and neither can any of the other graders, it's wrong.

Wow, I didn't realize that advice was laughably bad! I guess I was only extrapolating from my own experience. I agree with you - I shouldn't have valued multiple choice over short answers but rather over extended response questions. The issue I have with short answers is that sometimes, a perfectly reasonable answer would be marked incorrect, because maybe the grader didn't anticipate it, or the rubric didn't address it explicitly - for example, if a rubric said "respiration" and the competitor wrote "cellular respiration" it's possible that a quickly scanning grader (not trained in the content) could mark it wrong. Questions that have explicit, unambiguous short answers tend to require less critical thinking. Multiple choice tests are a lot tougher to write but when they're well constructed they can require just as much knowledge to answer correctly, and the "blind luck" factor can eliminated by penalizing incorrect answers a fraction of a point, but not penalizing blank answers.

[Unome]

The issue I have with short answers is that sometimes, a perfectly reasonable answer would be marked incorrect, because maybe the grader didn't anticipate it, or the rubric didn't address it explicitly - for example, if a rubric said "respiration" and the competitor wrote "cellular respiration" it's possible that a quickly scanning grader (not trained in the content) could mark it wrong.

Agreed, which is why I've been using mainly multiple choice for tests I'm not proctoring (and when I don't, I take time to be very clear with what qualifies as a correct answer).