05 June 2010

More multiple choice: New York Regents exams

When I first started teaching, my college roommate and Yankees fan Dai Duong sent me a New York Regents exam.  Of course, in those days the exam was hard-copy only, not online.  I remember liking the exam, and using some questions from it on my own tests, but since I lived nowhere close to New York* the Regents exam strayed from my mind.

*I was in Boca Raton, Florida, which is close to New York only in terms of culture.

Frank Noschese's comments on my previous post about multiple choice appropriate for general physics inspired me to check out recent Regents exams.  Frank is right -- the National Science League tests are essentially a rich man's version** of the Regents.

** "Rich man's" version not because NSL questions are any better, but because it costs money to purchase each year's test.  The Regents tests are available free online.

The level of the Regents is dead-on to what I teach in my general physics course.  My choice of topics does not exactly mimic that of the Regents exam, but is pretty close.***  In any case, now that Regents tests are online, I've now found another solid souce of physics questions.  Thanks, Frank!

*** More on topic selection in General Physics soon.


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