Linear testing for some UNC chemistry classes creates stress for students

Upon submitting her exam worksheet for her General Descriptive Chemistry II exam of the fall term, sophomore Vanessa Barquera realized she made a mistake. 

The biology major forgot to switch the sign of a number from negative to positive after multiplying two negative numbers. 

Her professor docked four points from that question. The exam — one of three exams this semester — used a linear format, meaning she couldn’t go back to questions she already answered. 

She said the error could’ve been avoided with more time and with the ability to change past answers. Students had 50 minutes to complete the exam through Sakai. 

“If you don’t know the answer, then you need to answer so you don’t run out of time for the next questions,” Barquera said. 

Other chemistry classes — such as Introduction to Organic Chemistry I — have implemented linear testing this semester to avoid intended, or unintended, Honor Code violations while students take classes online, UNC Media Relations said. 

But students have struggled to adapt to a new testing format that doesn't allow them to skip questions during exams.  

“That’s your one chance to get that question right,” Tariro Magarira said. 

Magarira, a sophomore transfer student, said he couldn't finish the exam because he ran out of time. “You can’t really go back. You can’t check your work over it. So, if you made one mistake, you're going to get the question wrong.” 

Wei You, the chairperson of the chemistry department, said in a statement that students can discuss their concerns regarding a course's structure or its exams by talking to their instructor — and students can reach out to him if they have additional questions. 

“I understand that this semester is different and more challenging than a typical semester for our students, and I appreciate hearing about their experiences and concerns,” You said. 

Navigating roadblocks

Before each class, students complete a linear quiz after watching a video lecture. 

They are given five minutes to complete two to three questions, which many students said is a difficult time constraint because they often require difficult calculations that can take several minutes to get through. 

Sophomore neuroscience major Jamell Mumford said he didn’t know he couldn’t skip through the quizzes until he took the first one. He skipped through a question he didn’t understand, but quickly realized his error upon attempting to go back. 

“We were always taught if we don't know it, go to another question that we would know and then come back,” Mumford said. “I see where they come from to minimize cheating, but it’s very time consuming to make sure you got a question right because you can’t go back.” 

When it came time for the exam, Mumford said he finished a minute under time. He tried not looking at the time while taking the exam because it raises his test anxiety. 

The exam consisted of four free response and six multiple choice questions, with several questions broken up into multiple sections.  

“You are worried about all the other ones,” he said. “You feel like you could have figured it out, but you just had to like click an answer and go. If you stay on too long, you miss the whole exam.”

About 600 students at UNC are enrolled in CHEM102 this fall term, according to Media Relations. 

Two sections are being offered this semester, which are taught by professors Carribeth Bliem and Tavleen Kochar three days a week. Neither responded to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Tar Heel. 

Students are required to get a C- or higher in the course in order to advance into any advanced chemistry course, according to UNC’s website.  

The average test score among students in Kochar’s class was 77%, according to a that was sent to students from the professor. The highest score was 100%. 

“The class as a whole did very well,” the professor wrote. 

Taking down the structure

A day before CHEM 102 students took their first exam, those taking CHEM 261 felt relief because professors Joshua Beaver and Marcey Waters announced the class would not use a linear format for their midterm exam, according to an email obtained by The Daily Tar Heel. 

“While we implemented multiple grading safeguards to mitigate the effects of this stress, we can see that the stress regarding the linear format is detracting from the focus and purpose of the course,” they said in the email.

The news came after multiple students started to voice their concerns over the format. 

On Piazza — a website that allows students in the class to ask questions to their professor and class — one student brought up how the linear format directly hurts virtual students in comparison to those taking the class in-person because they were able to check their work during the quiz, according to a screenshot obtained by the DTH. 

“I feel as through this creates a greater disparity between online learning and in-person learning when there shouldn’t be one and makes the class harder,” one student wrote. 

Beaver eventually answered, citing that linear exams help students become more confident in their answers. He wrote the format helps students become better test-takers because they are not tempted to change their answers and can spend more time on a single question. 

Several students drafted plans to publish a petition to abolish the format, but scrapped plans to do so once the news came out that the class would stop using this format. 

“We have been accustomed to taking a test a certain way for the entirety of our academic life; to suddenly altar our test taking strategies will be detrimental to us,” the petition draft read. “This is particularly important now as the majority of students are home.”

@Heidi_perez02

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