I am done marking midterm exams and I posted the results well before the course drop date. Since results were quite good with a class average of > 60% (no significant difference between day and evening sections) I hope that not too many students will drop. The results are certainly (significantly!) better than CHEM-217 last semester and there are several reasons for it:
- Class size is smaller – quite a few students, who failed CHEM-217 did not take CHEM-218
- Strategic learning classes helped a few to get a better understanding of the material
- In-class exercises helped to show that the material covered is not easy; at least not as easy as it seems, when you are guided through it by the instructor
Especially the last point is one that I have heard last semester and in evaluations that the exams were more difficult than the examples discussed in class. Since I profoundly disagree 😉 , I tried to provide more in-class examples and more importantly, in-class assignments that students try to solve for themselves before discussing it through a peer instruction exercise and answering the remaining questions in class. Overall I am quite happy about the improvement.
