Lowering Stakes on Exams

Lowering Stakes on Exams

When a student does poorly on a high stakes exam - one that encompass a large percentage of a their final grade - they may struggle to be motivated through the rest of the term. In seeing no hope for success, a student may disengage and try to do the bare minimum to pass the course, just drop the class, or give up entirely and accept a failing grade by stoping attending and working. None of these options help students succeed in your course nor, potentially, at UO.

This page offers different approaches to modify your exam plans to support students' in succeeding in your course. All generally emphasize that students will develop their understanding throughout the term. They are a way to show your students that you believe they can grow throughout the term. You hopefully believe this and tell you students it. These methods help you put that belief into practice. 

You cannot, of course, implement all of these ideas. Instead, think about which ones might align with your teaching style, discipline, and philosophy towards teaching. How could you try out or modify one of these for your course?

These ideas are not about lowering standards or academic rigor.
None of these ideas say you should ask easier questions or to pass students who do not achieve your learning objectives. Instead, they ways you can support students who have not yet mastered your objectives on a midterm exam, but still could by the end of term We want to ensure students still have pathways to succeed in your course, even if they've struggled early on.

Methods to Lower Stakes

Listed below are 11 methods you could use to lower stakes on exams. Each method links to an example use of their use and notes what actions instructors need to take while using that method. The descriptions generally assume weighted grading where exams or quizzes are worth some percentage of a student's overall grade. Many of the methods could be readily adapted to other grading schemes.

Drop or Replace Some Exam ScoresExam Retakes or Multi-part ExamsAdjust Scoring or Weighting
  1. Drop the lowest quiz or exam score
  2. Replace an exam score with the score on a final (cumulative) exam
  3. Make all exams cumulative; replace exam scores with improved scores on later exams
  4. Split exams into quizzes (taken concurrently), drop lowest score(s)
  1. Offer retakes on some quizzes or exams
  2. Allow students to earn additionally credit with an exam reflection
  3. Have a portion of the exam be taken in groups
  4. Let the exam be taken a second time (open book/note, in groups, asynchronously, etc.) and use combined results
  1. Increase weight of exams as term progresses
  2. Set the points needed for 100% lower than the maximum possible points
  3. Offer multiple ways to calculate final grades, some which emphasize lower stakes assessments

Methods 1-2, 5-6, and 9-10 come from Hogan and Sathy's Inclusive Teaching (2022, West Virginia University Press). The others are methods shared by instructors at UO that they've used in their courses.

Drop or Replace Some Exam Scores

These methods overwrite low student scores by either removing them from final grades entirely or replacing them by higher scores later in the term. These support students who struggle on one exam or quiz to still have an opportunity to succeed in the course. These methods may also simplify "make-up" exams/quizzes by having those exams/quizzes be the scores that are dropped or replaced. 

1. Drop the lowest quiz or exam score

Example: If you give three midterm exams, only count a student's best two toward their final course grade. You can even include a final exam in the grouping of possible exams to drop, if you wish.

Actions for Instructors: If you include all the exams in one assignment group in Canvas, you can set the group to automatically drop the lowest grade in the gradebook. There's no added work for you to do. Note that this does require all exams in the group to have the same weighting for a student's final course grade.

2. Replace an exam score with the score on a final (cumulative) exam

Example: After students take their final exam, use the final exam to replace the score on one midterm (if the final score is higher).

Actions for Instructors:  Before finalizing grades, you will need to go through student scores to check which midterm is lowest if it should be replaced by the final. Excel can do this quickly for you when calculating final grades. Canvas is unable to do this for you.

3. Make all exams cumulative; replace exam scores with improved scores on later exams

Example: If exam 1 covers chapters 1 and 2, have exam 2 cover chapters 1-5 including specific questions from chapters 1 and 2. If a student scores higher on exam 2, replace their exam 1 score with their score on exam 2.

See example syllabus language for cumulative exams in the Reducing Equity Gaps in STEM teaching showcase (the first example uses this method).

Actions for Instructors: You will need to manually (or with the help of excel) compare student exam scores and replace lower scores on prior exams. 

4. Split exams into quizzes (taken concurrently), drop lowest score(s)

Example: You have two 80 minute midterms. Divide the questions on each midterm into three quizzes. Give students all three quizzes to complete during the same 80 minute class session. Two midterms, become six quizzes. You could even split up the final exam into quizzes and allow those (potentially cumulative) final quizzes to replace the score on previous quizzes.

Actions for Instructors: You can design your exam exactly as you have previously. After writing the questions, you just need to restructure its format to be multiple quizzes rather than one exam.

Exam Retakes or Multi-part Exams

These allow students to replace their scores or earn additional credit by doing extra work. This forces students to engage and recognize what gaps there are still in their understanding and (hopefully) take steps to remedy them. The last two examples also encourage student collaboration and community building as students can work together on the exam (in similar ways they may work together in class on activities).

5. Offer retakes on some quizzes or exams

Example: A week after midterms are returned to students, they can take a new exam or quiz. Their new score replaces their previous score (or you could leave the original score if they do worse on the new version). Students who were absent during the original exam can take the new exam during the retake time.

Actions for Instructors: You'll need to prepare additional versions of an exam/quiz. If retakes for all students happen at the same time, you just need one version. If the retakes are spaced out in time, you may need more versions (to prevent students from sharing information about the retake exam). You'll also need to schedule a time for the retakes, plan proctors for the retakes, and grade the retakes.

6. Allow students to earn additionally credit with an exam reflection

Example: Within a week of exams being returned to students, students reflect on what mistakes they made on the exam, what the correct answers were, and how they can better prepare to avoid those mistakes in the future. For completing these questions, students can earn additional credit for the exam.

Actions for Instructors: You must prepare the reflection questions, assign them to students, review responses, and update student exam scores. You can find more details on exam reflections on our Metacognitive Teaching and Learning Activities page and sample exam reflection questions in our Student Success Toolkit. These questions are sometimes called exam wrappers or exam autopsies.

7. Have a portion of the exam be taken in groups

Example: After working on part one of the exam for a set time, students turn in their work and pick up a second half of the exam. Students are free to chat with neighbors to complete the second half of the exam. Alternatively, after working alone for a set time, students can chat with neighbors before submitting their exam.

Actions for Instructors: Students will need time to discuss answers together, so you'll need to plan for that and shorten the exam you would give if students were working alone. If using a two-part exam, you'll need to divide up your questions between the two parts and make a plan for how to weight each part of the exam to get a total exam score.

8. Let the exam be taken a second time (open book/note, in groups, asynchronously, etc.) and use combined results

Example: Students spend half the exam class session working alone on an exam and submit it. During the second half of the class session, students get a fresh copy of the exam and collaborate with classmates to answer the questions again. Alternatively, students can use the whole exam time to work on the exam and then retake the exam on their own after class. This 2nd attempt happens soon after the exam is completed, NOT after results are returned to students.

Actions for Instructors: You'll need two copies of your exam for each student (or create a digital version of the exam if taken at home). Because some time may be set aside for students to retake the exam together, you may need to shortened your planned exam to give time for collaboration.

Adjust Scoring or Weighting

These methods adjust the numbers without any extra student or faculty work. All three methods emphasize a growth mindset by allowing students space to improve and make mistakes without it hurting their final grade. 

The last also allows students choice in their grade. If they really don't want to do homework, they can chose not to and that won't (directly) impact their grade. This last method also can support Extraordinary Circumstances attendance policies as it gives a last minute completion option for students who have struggled to attend regularly - they can just take the final exam to complete the course. This 100% final exam option is, of course, the opposite of lowering stakes on exams but the overall policy still supports students through its flexibility.

9. Increase weight of exams as term progresses

Example: Currently, your three exams (including the final) each count as 20% of the final grade, for a total of 60%. You adjust your scoring plan so the first exam is 10%, the second is 20%, and the final exam is 30%. This is the same 60% of the final grade.

Actions for Instructors: If using Canvas Gradebook, you only need to adjust the existing exam weighting in Canvas.

10. Set the points needed for 100% lower than the maximum possible points

Example: There are a total of 105 possible points on your exam. You score your exam out of just 100 points, allowing room for small mistakes on the exam. You can think about this as "extra credit" except no specific questions are the "extra credit". All question counted the same towards the final score.

Actions for Instructors: Add a few additional questions to your planned exam or adjust scoring of some questions to boost their total. 

11. Offer multiple ways to calculate final grades, some which emphasize lower stakes assessments

Example: You calculate grade three ways: 100% final exam, 70% final exam + 30% homework, or 40% final exam + 30% midterm + 30% homework. The highest grade that each student earns from the three methods is their final score in the course.

See example syllabus language for cumulative exams in the Reducing Equity Gaps in STEM teaching showcase (the second example uses this method). You can also check out this blog post about multiple grading schemes.

Actions for Instructors: You will need to calculate three grades for each student (Excel can make this quick). In your Canvas Gradebook, you should probably turn off the total column and the grade indicator as these may not correctly reflect a student's grade.