Discussion
Balch (1998) argued that the results support the accuracy-assessment
hypothesis. If students are helped to develop an accurate assessment
of heir mastery - though a practice exam, for example - they will modify
their study habits and therefore perform better on the final exam.
He further argued that his findings that students did seem to have attended
to the review-exam task indicates that the final exam differences cannot
be explained merely according to a levels-of-processing hypothesis.
Balch also supports his rejection of the levels-of-proccessing hypothesis
by arguing that the sample-exam items were different and therefore the
students did not learn anything new by taking the practice test.
Balch concluded with an implication regarding the usefulness of providing
students with access to "old" exams. The Department of Psychology
at the University of Alberta does not provide the Exam Registry with old
exams because many exams contain items from the test banks that accompany
the texts. These items are copyrighted and therefore cannot be resold
by the Exam Registry. |