Exam Wrappers: Meta-Cognitive Questions to Help Students Reflect on Their Exams

As discussed in the CTE Teaching Tip: Teaching Metacognitive Skills, students are likely to experience improved learning if they continually develop their ability to reflect upon their own thinking and learning strategies. With highly demanding curriculums – particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) – it can be challenging to find time to guide students through this metacognitive process. One alternative is to offer exam wrappers – activities that “wrap around” an exam – which can be integrated alongside the assessment structure of a course and with minimal impact to in-class time.

Exam wrappers can be tailored to suit any course or subject area, but normally involve at least three open-ended questions which prompt students to reflect upon a given assessment:

• How did you prepare for the exam?

Although this question is intended to be open-ended, providing students several options to choose from (e.g., I read over my notes a few times, I completed practice questions, I created a concept map) might help those who aren’t aware of strategies other than the ones they use. Pointing students to University resources such as the Student Success Office Learning Support or Writing and Communication Centre can also be beneficial.

• Which questions did you find difficult to answer, and/or what kinds of errors did you make on the exam?

Encourage students to look for patterns (e.g., did they find application questions more difficult to answer than factual questions?) and characterize the types of errors made (e.g., lack of understanding of a particular concept, incorrect notations or terminology, rushed for time[NC3] ). Noticing these patterns will help students identify specific areas for improvement and assist them in creating something actionable in the last step.

• What will you do differently to prepare for the next exam?

Ask students to plan how they will use this information as they prepare for the next exam – their plan should be realistic and actionable. Point out the importance of using prior experiences to plan for future ones.

Note that if you have multiple tests in your course, exam wrappers can be used as both a pre- and post-exam exercise. Using it as a post-exam exercise is best to implement after the first test, as it provides prompting for students to think about how they will prepare for their next assessment. Using an exam wrapper as an additional pre-exam exercise for subsequent testing encourages students to follow through on their prior reflections and planning. It is recommended that exam wrappers are used as early as possible, most feasibly after the first test, as early intervention is very important for student success.

As Carnegie Mellon University’s Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation Eberly Center explains, without exercising their metacognitive skills, students often focus solely on the grade they earned on an exam. This focus leads to missing out on the learning opportunities that assessments could (and should) provide, such as:

• identifying their own individual areas of strength and weakness to guide further study;
• reflecting on the adequacy of their preparation time and the appropriateness of their study strategies; and
• characterizing the nature of their errors to find any recurring patterns that could be addressed.

The Eberly Center also provides several examples of exam wrappers for various subjects (Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Math, Languages).

Efficacy

It is worth noting that the impact of exam wrappers on student success can be highly variable – particularly when student exposure to metacognitive exercises is limited (Soicher & Gurung, 2017; Kustritz & Clarkson, 2017). This variation can be attributed to several factors, one being that students may be unfamiliar or inexperienced with practicing metacognitive thinking.

It was found that in instances where students were enrolled in more than one course which allowed multiple exam wrapper opportunities, they experienced higher rates of participation in the wrapper activity. Further, wrapper completion was significantly related to students' course grades (Hodges et al., 2020). Thus, first-year student instructors may wish to integrate and encourage the use of exam wrappers, and other metacognitive skill development, in hopes that students will continue those practices into their upper years.

Hodges et al. (2020) also saw that when courses offered course credit for the wrappers, completion rates were as high as 89%. The completion rates were much lower in courses that had them as optional unweighted activities. Thus, to promote student participation, it is recommended that a small percentage (e.g., 1-3%) of the total course grade is assigned to the completion of the exam wrapper exercises.

CTE Teaching Tips

• Teaching Metacognitive Skills
• Preparing for Tests and Exams

References

Eberly Center. (n.d.). Exam Wrappers. Carnegie Mellon University Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation.

Hodges, L. C., Beall, L. C., Anderson, E. C., Carpenter, T. S., Cui, L., Feeser, E., Gierasch, T., Nanes, K. M., Perks, H. M., & Wagner, C. (2020). Effect of Exam Wrappers on Student Achievement in Multiple, Large STEM Courses. Journal of College Science Teaching, 50(1), NA.

Root Kustritz, M. V., & Clarkson, C. E. (2017). Use of Examination Wrappers to Direct Student Self-Assessment of Examination Preparation: A Pilot Study. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education (Vol. 44, Issue 2, pp. 338–342). University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress).

Soicher, R. N., & Gurung, R. A. R. (2017). Do Exam Wrappers Increase Metacognition and Performance? A Single Course Intervention. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 16(1), 64-73.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching and learning, CTE staff members are here to help. View the CTE Support page to find the most relevant staff member to contact.