Exam Wrappers: Using Reflections on Study Habits to Support Student Learning

Shaunna McLeod, Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Chemistry and an Associate Pedagogy Fellow in the CCTL

The first exam in college can be emotionally fraught for students, with the result tied to feelings of belonging in the discipline and at the university as a whole. When I meet with students after the first midterm in my courses, I try to guide them away from self-doubt and instead towards more productive reflection. I find that these conversations rarely focus on content knowledge, but rather how the student prepared for the exam. In most cases, students discuss issues related to inadequate preparation and unfamiliarity with how to demonstrate their knowledge beyond multiple choice assessments. Some students never needed to study for exams in high school and realize that more effort will be necessary at the college level. These discussions are a valuable experience for students, with many significantly improving on the next exam by adapting their approaches to studying and test-taking. Unfortunately, one-on-one meetings are not possible with every student, especially in large-enrollment courses, so I was motivated to design an activity that encourages all students to engage in this reflection process. Starting college is a big adjustment, and every student can benefit from reevaluating their study strategies and time management skills for this new environment. 

For context, I teach primarily in the Comprehensive General Chemistry Sequence (CHEM 11100/11200/11300), which is part of the Physical Sciences Core and a prerequisite for many STEM majors. This is a large enrollment course, with ~350 students across two lecture sections, and ~90% are first year students. Students come to the course with a wide range of past experiences with chemistry, including some who have never taken a formal chemistry course. General Chemistry also has a reputation as a “weed out” course and can be intimidating for students. I try to work against this perception by establishing an inclusive class environment where all students are supported and provided with tools to succeed. A major goal of my course design is to foster a sense of belonging in STEM and at the university. One strategy towards this goal is to integrate “how to be a college student” ideas into the course. Across multiple course components there are opportunities for students to reflect on their work, use feedback to learn from their mistakes, and consider how they learn best. My hope is that students develop work and study habits in the course that will set them up for success not only in chemistry, but also in their future studies more broadly.  

Exam Wrappers: What & Why  

The Midterm Reflection activities in my course are one example of how I facilitate “how to be a college student” practices for students. In addition to my desire to approximate and scale up the constructive one-on-one meetings with students after a midterm, I noticed that a significant proportion of students never reviewed their graded exams. This was especially concerning as general chemistry is a cumulative sequence where course topics build off each other across three quarters. It is expected that topics from the fall quarter can be applied accurately in the spring quarter in order to study and understand more complex chemical systems. By forgoing the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, misconceptions can propagate throughout the sequence and impact a student’s ability to succeed.  

When discussing this frustration with other instructors (e.g., in CCTL Reading Groups and at Chemistry Education conferences), the idea of using “Exam Wrappers” was an intriguing suggestion. The basic format is that students answer questions related to their experience before, during, and after the exam. How did they prepare? How did the exam go? What, if anything, will they change for the next exam? The activity provides a structure for students to review the results and feedback and then make a plan to improve for future assessments. Scholarship from psychologist Marsha Lovett and chemistry educator Saundra McGuire supports the use of this type of activity as a way for students to build metacognition skills. If students better understand how they learn, they will be able to engage with the resources, study strategies, and test-taking tools that will be most beneficial for their learning and improve their performance. The reflection activity also communicates to students that it is their responsibility to learn how they learn best. The instructional team can provide support and suggestions for new approaches to consider, but to be successful, students must take control of their own learning. Wrapper activities can also be implemented for any learning activity or assessment, not just exams. Wrapper activities for lectures, homework, papers, and discussions can leverage the benefits of this metacognitive reflection in any teaching context.  

Implementation in My Course 

In my course I call these exam wrapper activities “Midterm Reflections” to highlight when students are expected to complete the assignment. The reflection is 14 questions long, with a mix of multiple choice, Likert-type ratings (scale 1-5), and open response questions that guide students through reviewing the exam results, describing their study strategies and time management, and reflecting on their exam preparedness. The full instructions and set of questions are available below for reference. The format has gone through several iterations, with the current question wording heavily inspired by a presentation at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education by Shawn Miller, Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. The multiple choice and rating questions provide a quantitative handle to view the results in aggregate and analyze trends, while the open response questions give us more insight into individual student perspectives.  

Completion of the midterm reflections are optional, but highly incentivized. In each quarter of the sequence there are two midterm exams (worth 100 points each) and one cumulative final exam (worth 200 points). If students complete the reflection for both midterms in the quarter, they will earn 100 dropped exam points (see details below). This component of the policy is in place to provide flexibility and encourage students to take risks and try new study techniques. Instead of taking a poor exam score as a sign to leave the sequence, the reflection assignments afford students some grace to grow and still have success in the course. I’ve worked with several students who earned poor scores on the first midterm and then used this policy to improve their performance in the course significantly. Instead of being completely deflated by the first quarter of general chemistry, they are proud of their progress and what they were able to achieve after a setback. I see this policy as a major success in terms of student motivation and retention, and something that actively works against the “gatekeeping” connotations of general chemistry courses.   

The reflections also help inform discussions with students about exam performance. Before one-on-one meetings with students, I will review their reflection responses to guide our conversation. I also evaluate the general trends to discuss recommendations for studying with the whole class. The course teaching assistants (TAs) are responsible for assessing the reflections for their section (~15 students), so they address observations and common concerns in their small-group discussion sessions as well. The main takeaway I share with students is that studying should mirror the skills that they are asked to demonstrate on the exam. My exams require students to demonstrate problem-solving proficiency, so using practice problems should be a large part of exam preparation. If the primary study strategies used were reading over notes or watching explanation videos, this is a mismatch that can be addressed for the next exam. Also, even if practice problems are already being used, it is important that they are used in a targeted way. Students should focus on the practice problems that are challenging and the ones they are not getting correct immediately. This shines a light on the exam topics that need more attention. Simply doing many practice problems that a student finds easy is not the best use of their time or a useful way to prepare.  

Implementation in this format is also only possible due to the course’s large team of TAs. The Midterm Reflection is programmed into Canvas as a graded quiz, and each TA reviews the responses for their section to ensure they meet the quality and effort standards required for credit. This makes the assessment time burden more reasonable with only 15-20 students per TA. Large enrollment classes without this level of support could consider implementing the activity with more automatic grading and/or fewer open response questions.  

Final Thoughts & Future Directions 

I think the Midterm Reflection activity is successful in providing students with structure to learn from their mistakes and build metacognitive skills. The assignment gives every student the opportunity to grow, not just those that seek out one-on-one meetings. Still, implementation of the Midterm Reflections is a work in progress and there are updates to consider. I have ideas for a few revisions to the questions and would like to develop the analysis of student responses further. 

First, I will change the wording of the question that asks students to identify why they lost credit on individual problems (question #2). Right now, this is asked in a passive way, and it would be useful to have students explicitly pinpoint the reasons that led to errors. Beyond the utility to students, this data will also be useful for us to see so we can give more targeted advice. The quality of responses from students that did well is also mixed, particularly for the open response questions. I plan to revise the reflection question related to topics that students felt unprepared to answer (questions #13) to include a statement like “If you didn’t struggle with any topics, what advice would you give to your peers to learn these concepts?” That way every student can provide a thoughtful response.  

Another point to consider is that the Midterm Reflection assignment is the same across all three quarters of the sequence. I find that this policy is particularly beneficial for the fall quarter when first year students are adjusting to the college environment, and college exams, for the first time. However, there are diminishing returns throughout the winter and spring quarters in terms of response quality. Adding some new questions in the winter and spring may be a way to keep things fresh and perhaps probe different metacognition ideas–for example, asking questions in the later quarters about what new strategies they have tried in response to the reflection activities. Do students use the reflections to inform future preparations, both in chemistry and in other courses? What has made the biggest difference in their exam preparations? I think questions related to mindset and self-care would also be useful. Getting good sleep and taking breaks are important ways to prepare for cognitive tasks, something that is often overlooked by stressed-out college students. Part of the reflection assignment is to plant seeds for new ideas for students to consider. Student learning is a holistic process, not just about how much time is spent with chemistry material.  

I also have been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information collected in these midterm reflections, and how best to analyze responses. Over 300 students respond to each reflection assignment, so with two reflections per quarter, there are thousands of responses to examine. The main goal is to better understand student study habits and determine what strategies correlate to student success. I’ve started to use Phoenix AI to draw out themes in the open response questions. During the quarter I didn’t have the bandwidth to go through all responses; using Phoenix AI makes this a much lower lift and provides a comprehensive summary I can use to inform in-class discussions. After digging into the responses more, I also plan to revise the exam preparation guidance page posted on Canvas for students. I am excited to develop the Midterm Reflections further and continue to support student learning and growth in my courses.  

Resources & Further Reading 

Exam Wrappers – Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University  

“Make Exams Worth More than the Grade” by Marsha C. Lovett in Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning (2013) 

Teach Students How to Learn by Saunda Yancy McGuire (2015) 

Directions for Students 

Midterm Reflections & Opportunity for Dropped Exam 

Part of your job as a student is to learn how you learn best. You may find it helpful to explicitly track your study procedures and hours, and then reflect after the exam on how well it worked for you. Doing this often will help you hone your personal approach to studying for exams.  

To encourage this beneficial study habit, we will offer a guided Exam Reflection assignment on Canvas after each Midterm exam. By completing both of these optional reflection activities, you can earn the opportunity to drop 100 points from the total 400 exam points (each Midterm is 100 points, the Final Exam is 200 points). This means the exam portion of the final grade would use the best performances out of 300 points instead of the 400 total exam points. So, for example, if Midterm #1 did not go well and Midterm #2 and the Final Exam were much stronger performances, by completing both Exam Reflections the Midterm #1 score would not be included in the final grade calculation. Similarly, if performances on both Midterms were strong but the Final Exam did not go as well, the Final Exam would only be weighted as out of 100 points in the grade calculation instead of 200. Some more specific examples of how this would work are below. The exam that is dropped is automatically determined by instructors to maximize the exam component in students’ final grade.