Monday, March 26, 2007

Presidents Revisited

The last time I took a test on all 128 presidential facts was September 18, 2006. It took only ten minutes and three seconds. I decided to try again today, I set the presidents test to display all 128 questions, here is how I did:

Gold Trophy - I've Still Got It!
Percent Correct: 98%
Time: 21:50

Wow. It took a long time. I think I spent two minutes or more just trying to remember President Lyndon Johnson's name (36th President Question with Fill in the Blank). I could picture him, remember key events in his administration, but I could not remember his name. I got three questions wrong, all portrait questions (William McKinley, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes).

Since I last took a long test I've refreshed this knowledge about 34 times for a total of about 84 minutes. Most of my refreshes were taking short tests of 20 questions. I wonder if I would do as well simply using tutor mode and refreshing a minute at a time (saving 50 minutes of refresh time)? Perhaps something we can test in the future with more students, but I suspect it will work.

I think I'll take this test again in a few minutes to see how much faster my time can improve with one review. I am guessing if I take it again I will take at least 25% off of my time. If so, it may be a good indicator that reviewing material right before you take an exam is a good thing.

Gold Trophy
Percent Correct: 100%
Time: 13:51

Amazing! I shaved one second shy of eight minutes off the time to take the test. Simply reviewing all of the questions once reduced the time to take the test by 36%. This is the fastest I have ever done all 128 questions an achieved a score of 100%. This may indicate the value of priming your memory right before a big exam (reviewing a large set of sample questions). It is definately a technique worthy of further study.