Exam 2 results are now posted on Canvas (and released to your Examsoft student portal)! The mean was 91% in case you’re wondering. I hesitate to post the mean because I don’t curve grades, and I don’t want to encourage you to compare yourself to each other. But I know you like to see it so there you go.

I’ve gone through all the questions, and I found two that didn’t perform well. Here they are:

32. The foramen ovale allows blood to flow from:
A. This answer got cut off 😦
B. The right ventricle to the left ventricle
C. The left ventricle to the right ventricle
D. The right atrium to the left atrium
E. The left atrium to the right atrium

The correct answer was D. Here are slides 52 and 53 from the Cardiovascular System lecture, which describe the location and purpose of the foramen ovale:

One problem with this question is that the first distractor didn’t show up properly. But more importantly, only 39% of the class answered the question correctly. The last learning objective was about the foramen ovale (“Explain the function of the foramen ovale and describe what happens to it after birth.”) – and I thought that it would be a fairly straightforward question – but when less than half of the class gets a question right, it indicates to me that I probably didn’t describe this well enough in class, or stress the importance of it. So I’ve added a point to everyone’s score for this question.

18. The lymphoid system gets rid of all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Microorganisms
B. Cancer cells
C. Waste products
D. Dead cells
E. Foreign materials (like pollen)

The correct answer was D. Here’s slide 5 from the Lymphoid System lecture, which describes what the lymphoid system gets rid of:

The first learning objective was about the functions of the lymphoid system (“Briefly describe the functions of the lymphoid system.”). However, only 40% of the class got this question right (24% of the class chose A, microorganisms). One student mentioned that dead cells seemed like something the lymphoid system got rid of, because the red pulp of the spleen gets rid of old red cells – and I bet there were other students that thought the same thing. Technically, the red cells the spleen gets rid of aren’t dead…but they’re almost dead! So I can see why that would be confusing. I gave everyone an extra point for this question too.

Let me know if you have any questions about this exam, or if you want to go through it with me!