All students and teachers know something about test anxiety. Under the pressure of an exam, some students are unable to demonstrate some of the knowledge and skills that they have learned.

Recently a student in the Mathematics Department at the University of Manitoba, Canada earned a doctorate in math without passing the comprehensive exam. Here is a quote from the Chronicle of Higher Education (11/29/2010).

Mathematicians from around the world are protesting the University of Manitoba’s decision to award a Ph.D. to a student who twice failed a required examination because the student was diagnosed with so-called exam anxiety, reports the National Post (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Mathematicians+protest+degree+granted+University+Manitoba/3897066/story.html). The protesters wrote a letter in support of Gabor Lukacs, a professor of mathematics at the university, who was suspended without pay for three months for his attempt to get a court injunction against the awarding of the degree. The letter, with 86 signatories from Canada, Europe, Israel, and the United States, warns the university president, David Barnard, that the contested doctorate, if awarded, will seriously affect the reputation of degrees granted by the university.

 I found two things about this report quite interesting. One was the use of the term “so-called exam anxiety.” There has been substantial research in test anxiety.  I find it an insult to educational research to use the expression “so-called.”

Second, the student wrote a math research dissertation that was found acceptable through the usual processes of the University of Manitoba and its Mathematics Department. Aha!  Perhaps “The proof is in the pudding." It seems obvious to me that a successfully completed research dissertation is a much better measure of the student than is performance on a comprehensive exam.

Comprehensive exams are a hoop-jumping experience. Some people are much better at performing in high stakes tests than others. We need to ask ourselves—is a high stakes test an appropriate measure? Should we keep students from graduating from high school or from earning a doctorate on the basis of a high stakes test?  Or, should we look more carefully at what we are trying to accomplish and seek a variety of alternative measures to be used along the path to getting a good education and earning recognition for the quality of education one has obtained?

Final Remarks

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Links to Related IAE Documents

Are high schools seriously misleading our students?

Assessing Student Achievement in Difficult to Assess Curricular Areas: Social Knowledge and Skills. IAE Newsletter - Issue 57, January, 2011.

Being increasingly responsible for your own education.

Being "Proficient" with 50 Percent Correct Answers. Math competence and math maturity. IAE Newsletter - Issue 23, August, 2009.

Changing the world of education by failing more students.

Children will learn to do what they want to do.

Self Assessment.

Self-assessment Instruments.

Some major flaws with detailed standards, rules, regulations, and so on. IAE Newsletter - Issue 22, July, 2009 .

The Role of Preference in Cognition, Curriculum, and Assessment.