Students may think they are the only ones who suffer from test anxiety, but another group at the University feels the pressure too — faculty.

The Center for Faculty Development recently conducted a series of workshops to help ease the pressure both new and experienced professors face in constructing tests. The forum was also meant to improve the information on the tests so that it better reflects course material.

The “How to Construct Better Tests” forum was one of the workshop series called Teaching 101 and was open to all University faculty and graduate teaching assistants. The workshop series began in February and will continue into March.

Lynn Evans, director of the Center for Faculty Development, said she hopes these programs will succeed in providing professors advice on constructing tests.

The Center for Faculty Development emphasizes the use of a wide variety of instructional methods. The “How to Construct Better Tests” forum allowed a variety of professors to meet and learn more about what Evans said she considers, “one of the basics of teaching.”

Communication studies graduate assistant John Martin said he did not attend this forum, but has taken a similar class. Martin said he finds that knowing how to construct a fair test creates the difference between a technician and a professor. “Technicians simply know how to create a test,” he said. “Professionals know what to test, how to test it and why you want to test that particular material.”

Evans said she hopes the forum will turn University professors who are “technicians” into well-informed “professionals.”

Evans, who led the forum, said she also wants to eliminate the differences between the tests students prepare themselves for and the actual tests professors give.

“If tests were geared more toward the material the teachers expect the students to absorb, there wouldn’t be much surprise to students on the day of the tests,” she said.

Professors who attended the forum said that in contrast to what most students may think, they do consider student recommendations and complaints about tests.

“Although you can’t customize everything to everyone in class,” Martin said. “It is important to understand that even though core knowledge never changes, strategies of teaching and testing change on a day to day basis once a professor learns what works for the students.”

Professors attending the forum ranged from those who simply wanted to change their tests because of poor feedback or grades to those who feel uninformed on the topic of constructing fair test questions.

“Now that my class has gotten bigger, and I use more multiple choice questions, I want instruction on how to make my questions better,” said entomology Professor Dorothy Prowell.

The lecture included strategies for teachers who need further instruction to create the ideal test that would be a fair assessment of material while also keeping in mind a student’s different learning capabilities.

Students sometimes complain about irrelevant material being tested as well as unfair tests given out by instructors. That is where the Center for Faculty Development hopes to step in and create assessment strategies that will promote a compromise between student and teacher desires.

Physical therapy sophomore Chris Baker’s biggest complaint about tests is that “the material given seems foreign compared to the lecture notes or things said in class.”

The Center for Faculty Development hopes that by making professors aware of suggestions for developing tests, professors will create assessments that students such as Baker will feel more confident taking.

Like many other students, Baker does not like multiple choice tests in particular because he thinks they do not give students a fair chance to state their knowledge and expound upon it.

Evans, who said she strongly feels that it is important for “students to be able to respond to different styles of tests,” urged forum attendees to weigh all the options when thinking about what type of test to give. She said multiple choice tests are appropriate in some classes, simply because of time limits. She also said essay exams are appropriate in classes where a professor needs to asses every aspect of student’s knowledge.

Martin uses multiple choice exams in his public speaking courses for many reasons.

“When using essay exams, it is hard to know what to grade and what not to grade,” he said “Multiple choice tests take out the gray area and provide me with a fast analysis of what the student knows.”

According to handouts given to professors at the lecture, multiple choice questions are more difficult to construct. But, essays are time consuming to grade.

Professors also discussed at the workshop student complaints and recommendations about tests.

“I don’t understand why more teachers don’t use essay exams,” said Rebecca Favaloro, a business sophomore. “I like them better because it makes you actually learn rather than just getting lucky by guessing the answer.”

The Center for Faculty Development staff will soon offer another program, Teaching 102, which will focus on more detailed teaching and learning styles. They also offer analysis of exams and additional resources about test construction in hopes to end the mutual threat of test anxiety.