2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Exams are intimidating. Students can feel overwhelmed by reviewing for exams. While students need to know subject matter content, reviewing concepts alone before exams is not always an effective exam preparation strategy. Although example problems may help, instructor-solved ones are often less effective in preparing students than student-solved problems.

In this engaging classroom activity, students in an undergraduate Heat Transfer course are given the opportunity to preview a figure from an upcoming exam as part of an exam review exercise. All exam questions are generally related to the heat transfer processes/geometries described in said figure. Students are asked to carefully scrutinize the figure to identify the probable mode(s) of heat transfer. During the review period, groups of students work together to come up with potential exam problems related to the covered content and then identify strategies, methodologies, and/or relevant equations to obtain solutions. The primary role of the instructor during these activities is to ensure that the discussions are relevant to the upcoming exam’s content or focus. Review sessions are typically held the day before the exam, and the preview figures are provided in advance. The review activity is based on various studies supporting collaborative learning as study strategies that lead to enhanced academic performance. The majority of participating students are in the third year of their degree program.

This exam review activity has been used numerous times by the author. Students enjoy the experience, and it generally relieves exam anxiety. This paper will provide instructions on developing and running the activity, provide examples, and present qualitative and quantitative student feedback from three different offerings the course.