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4. At the end of each major section in the text, there are some straightforward
self-test questions and problems that deal with the material in the section.
These are in addition to the end-of–chapter questions and problems.
Previously, we avoided including problems in the test bank that were similar
in form and wording to those in the text—the test bank problems covered
the same material, but they looked different and frequently required a
different thought process. For example, in the text we might give students
some data and then require them to find the days sales outstanding, while
in the test bank we might give them the DSO and ask them to determine the
firm’s sales. Thus, many of the test bank problems required students to
transform the DSO equation and then use the transformed version to answer
the question. This is a good way to see how well students understood the
material, but it makes the problems relatively difficult and different from
what students saw in the text. The test bank still contains some of these
“convoluted” problems, but now it now has a lot more straightforward and
therefore easier problems.
5. To help instructors make up their exams, we provide a more complete
description of what each question or problem is designed to test. We
designated each question or problem as EASY, EASY/MEDIUM, MEDIUM,
MEDIUM/HARD, or HARD, and then arranged them from easy to hard, and then
by topic within each difficulty category. Time requirements vary depending
on the type of calculator students use, what was stressed in class, and
whether students are allowed to use a formula sheet. However, as a general
rule the easy items can be worked in 2 to 3 minutes and the medium ones in
3 to 4 minutes. Instructors can look at our solutions to get a better idea
of how long it will take their specific students to work the various
problems. In addition, AACSB “tags” are included on each topic line. These
tags indicate general and specific skills required to answer each question.
A listing of the AACSB tags is shown at the end of the preface. This can
be useful in the accreditation process.
6. Virtually all of our students at Florida use financial calculators, and we
also allow them to use the formulas provided in Appendix C of the text. We
strongly recommend that students be allowed to use a formula sheet, and we
tell them that at the beginning of the course. Otherwise, they spend too
much time trying to memorize formulas; time that would be better spent
trying to understand the meaning of different results. Note, though, that
if students do not use financial calculators and/or formula sheets, the
questions and especially the problems will de facto be more difficult than
we indicated and require more time for students to solve. Instructors need
to consider this when developing their exams from the test bank.
7. ExamView permits instructors to make up exams that contain some of our
questions and problems along with some items of their own. We generally
use 10 T/F or multiple-choice conceptual questions and 10 multiple-choice
problems, with most taken from the test bank but a few new ones based on
things that came up in class or recent events reported in the news. The
number of items in a test obviously depends on how long students have to
take the test and the difficulty level of the items that are used.
8. In small classes, it might be preferable to give nonmultiple-choice exams.
It is easy to use conceptual questions and numerical problems from the test
bank to make up such an exam—just delete the set of answers and ask for
an essay answer or a worked-out problem solution. Unfortunately, the class
size in the introductory course at Florida rarely makes this feasible.