Constructing Exams In constructing exam questions, do you focus on the content and construct a realistic setting for the questions or do you start with a real problem and try to match the course content? In other words, how much do you strive to use real data as opposed to hypothetical or realistic data in the exam questions?

In constructing the exam, how do you decide how many points a question should be worth? What percentage of the points on the exam would you say are for primarily conceptual knowledge/interpretation vs. calculation/mechanics?

When constructing examinations, I always use real data. Also, I allocate points for each item based on how important I believe the topic it represents to be and how much time was spent covering it in class and/or in the readings. Much more weight is given for conceptual knowledge/interpretation items than for calculation/mechanics items.

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