[RUME] "Blanking" on tests: any research on this phenomenon?

[Andy Miller]

Colleagues --

It's exam time, and so I have heard from worried students the refrain 
that, "I do fine on the homework problems and quizzes, but when it comes 
to exams, I just blank -- I have no idea where to start a problem." This 
is a common enough complaint that I am curious if any research has been 
done to identify whether this is genuine (that is, whether there are 
students that really do succeed on homework and other assignment types, 
but do not succeed on timed, in-class, closed-book exams), and, if it 
is, how we can help students correct this problem.

With some students, I have been able to identify part of the cause as 
doing homework in-tandem with an example. Namely, they find an example 
just like a given homework problem and emulate that example 
step-by-step. Of course, this strategy is not available on an exam, so a 
student that relies on this technique is in trouble come test time.

In case it is relevant, the context here is mathematics below calculus, 
namely college algebra (which at our institution is about 80% a rehash 
of material at the high school algebra 2 level).

--Andy

-- 
Andrew Miller
Assistant Professor of Mathematics	
Belmont University
Nashville, TN