Sometimes professors give out sample answers to old exams. This is useful for finding out what the prof is looking for, but not useful for estimating the quality of your current preparation.

Sometimes you get professor-written answers, sometimes student-written. Those can be a little shaming. For one of my exams I have a sample student answer to a 75-minute essay question given last time – it is 4,000 words long. That's about what I can write in 3 hours ... if I've done a couple 'bumps' and had a triple latte.

To give a fuller perspective of the spectrum of exam performance, I'd prefer if profs provided some non-model answers in addition to the model answers. Namely, what was the absolute worst answer that still squeaked by with a C? Because if there are 4,000 word dramatic overachievers, there must be others who answered it in 500 words plus some doodles of puppies in the margin. That's the person who's going to give me the most confidence.

09 Dec 05