I don't think 50-minute tests are always the best way to assess how well you know material? Who's with me?! Let's just go protest against tests, right?

No. I don't mean it exactly the way the whiny students means after he/she got a bad grade. (Although I did just get a bad grade...damn the inventor of Ochem).

What I mean to say is that some students are slower readers and it takes them longer to process questions. For others maybe they just need to take the first 10 mintues letting everything soak in their cerebrum and then they start. All students have different test-taking kwirks, and who is to say that someone is smarter than the other because they got through the exam in the alloted time.

Also, different professors have such different test formats. So it's not very fair to say a test is a test is a test, now is it? For example, I know in Zoology and other classes you have 4 different professors that cover 4 different sections...which means 4 different exam formats. It can be great because you get 4 different teaching methods but never getting used to the format you never have that sense of familiarity. I know when I study I try and think "Now, what is Mr./ Ms./ Mrs. So and so going to ask?" It's hard to come up with an answer when you haven't had an exam of theirs before.

I suppose there is no going around it. You CAN NOT get rid of tests, there needs to be ways to assess that you know information, and tests do serve the purpose even if they aren't perfect.

All I can say is: "Man, I wish I would've remembered to mark the chiral centers!" (Excuse me while I go slam my head against the wall)