Use of Exams Are "exams" a component of your students' course grade? What percentage of the overall grade are from exams? What is the format of your main exams? Would you characterize these exams as mostly multiple choice, short answer, longer answer questions, or some mixture?
Are these in-class exams or take-home exams? What time restrictions do you place on the exams? How many students do you expect to finish in the time allotted?

Why do you use exams? Do you feel exams are an important reflection of students' abilities?

Do you take any safeguards to try to minimize student cheating? Please describe the concern and how you respond (e.g., seating arrangements, multiple versions of exams).

I usually give 2 midterm exams and a final exam during the course of the quarter. Midterm exams are 50 minutes in length; the final exam is usually 90 or 120 minutes long. I give in-class exams, and most students are able to finish the exam (probably 80%) during the allotted time. I usually teach in a computer classroom with two students to a computer. On exam days, I split the class in half, with half attending the first hour and half the second hour so that each student can sit at a computer. Students can then use MINTBAB on the exam, with data files that I provide. The advantage of this is that I can ask more realistic data analysis questions, even with reasonably large data sets (since students don't have to type in the data themselves). It also allows me to focus less on computation and more on interpretation. The one thing I worry about is that with access to the computer during exams, things are a bit less secure. I worry that students may look at the class web site or even email during the exam, but so far don't think this has been a problem.