By Emily McIntyre
Timed tests in Accounting 210 have sparked a hot debate between students and professors. This debate is magnified by the fact that the class grade is a determining factor into the highly competitive accounting program.
'I have no doubt that if I would not have had a time limit on my Accounting 210 test, I could have preformed significantly better,' said Angela Davis, a sophomore from Alpine, Utah County, majoring in accounting.
Monte Swain, associate professor of management accounting, who teaches Accounting 210, sets time limits on his tests.
'Generally an exam in the testing center needs to take approximately how long it would take to take in class. My class is 80 minutes long and I set a two-hour exam limit,' Swain said.
Some students feel the time limit is not adequate.
'I feel a lot of pressure while taking my test,' said Jen McArthur, 20, a sophomore from St. George, Washington County, majoring in pre-management.
Swain said there are two reasons why he sets time limits. First, there is a professional development reason.
'In the business world everything is done under time pressure, the ability to think and perform quickly is valuable,' Swain said.
Swain said he also sets time limits for an academic reason. He thinks setting a time limit is more merciful because it keeps students from sitting in the testing center for hours.
But some students say that they should not be required to perform at real world speeds in college.
'This is not the real word, it is a learning environment,' Dennis said. 'I think that time tests reward those that test well and don''t reward the hard workers. In the real world people want hard workers.'
Students also said they understand that one day they will have to perform in the real world.
'As real life accountants we will have deadlines and we understand that, but right now we are still trying to meet the material,' McArthur said.
Richard Sudweeks, a professor in the instructional Psychology and Technology Department who specializes in educational training and testing, said there is a movement across the country towards authentic assessment. Authentic assessment is the idea of creating a typical problem in the world for students to solve, Sudweeks said.
'There is some justification to test on students, problems they would likely face in a real world situation. If in a profession there are time limits then you could probably justify a test with time limits,' Sudweeks said.
However, Sudweeks said it is important there be an adequate time limit.
'As professors we may underestimate the time that students need to complete tests,' Sudweeks said. 'If we test realistic problems we should set realistic time limits.'
It is widely known that Accounting 210 is the weeding out class of the accounting program.
'We have limited enrollment in this program, we have to make a decision about who will be enrolled or not. We need to get students who are potentially more adept to succeeding in our accounting program,' said Norman Nemrow, teaching professor in the School of Accountancy and Information Systems.
But students said trying to perform well on Accounting 210 tests are hard because they are so concerned with just finishing the test.
'I''m more worried about just getting through the test than actually applying everything that I know and trying to do well,' McArthur said.
Students also said knowing the test is timed makes the test harder even before they set foot in the testing center.
'Timed tests are for people who test well, and even if you put forth a tremendous effort, you are at a disadvantage before you even go into the test,' Dennis said.
Other teachers in the accounting program also use time limits, but not always for the same reasons.
David Cottrell, associate teaching professor of accounting said he sets what he feels are limits of reasonable length.
'I do not use time limits to create artificial pressure. If I think that the test will take about two hours, I set a four hour limit.'
Professors also said an unlimited amount of time is not always beneficial to students.
'If someone does not know the answer after four hours, I don''t believe spending more time will be beneficial to them,' Cottrell said.
However, some students said if they had more time, they probably could perform better.
'I''m not the best multiple choice test-taker,' McArthur said. 'But if I''m not hurried through a test and actually have time to think about it I can do well.'
Some students said timed tests do not bother them.
'I don''t feel added pressure in timed tests because I''m usually done in an hour anyway,' said Thomas Stagg, 23, a junior from Gresham, Oregon, majoring in accounting.
Even when students are given more time to complete their tests, they do not always do better, and often times, they do worse, Cottrell said.
'On exams where I set a time limit I always look at the scores to see if there is any correlation between the amount of time a student spends in the testing center and there score on the exam,' Cottrell said. 'On most of my exams, students who take an extremely long time on their tests do not score significantly higher, in fact they often score significantly lower, than students who spent a reasonable amount of time.'
Swain said that if a student has a mental, physical, or emotional disability that affects their test taking, he will work with them like an employer would work with them. He encourages those students to come to him early in the semester so that they can work with the disability.