The scores for exam 2 are final, and are now posted in Canvas. You did really well – the mean was 92% (or 44 out of 48 points). I gave everyone credit for the question that was a blend of two questions. I apologize for that error – it slipped right under my radar.
If you want to see the questions you got wrong, your exam 2 results are now available in your exam portal (here’s a post about how to view your exam results in case you’ve forgotten).
Let me know if you have any questions!
Just a few quick items to share with you about the course. First: I know there were a few typos on the exam, and I apologize for those. Normally, I check and double check (and triple check) the exam before posting it – but this time, I couldn’t do that, and it resulted in a repeated question as well as a fusion of two questions 😦 I’ll be adjusting your scores for the fused question, and if I run into any other typos that could have been confusing, I’ll adjust accordingly for those as well. I’ll post the exam scores on Canvas this evening.
I’ve been dealing with a family emergency that started over the weekend – and although I was able to do the exam review on Monday, I have otherwise been unable to get to my computer much over the last several days. So that’s the reason for the exam typos, and it’s also the reason I haven’t been able to respond to many of your emails over the past few days. Normally, I try to answer emails within the same day, but that just hasn’t been possible, and I apologize for that. I plan to start working through them tomorrow, however, and I’ll start with the oldest ones first.
Finally, I’ve moved our optional post-exam review session from tomorrow (9/24) to Tuesday, 9/29 (you can see the change on our lectures page). I will be posting tomorrow’s lecture video this evening.
Thank you for your patience with these changes and adjustments!
Exam 2 is scheduled for Tuesday, September 22, and you may take it any time between 1:00 am and 11:59 pm. The password for opening the exam is RickandMorty1. Once you open the exam you have a maximum of two hours to complete the exam. All submissions must be uploaded by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, September 22, in order to receive a grade.
All the same Examplify rules apply for this exam. If you have any problems, just drop me an email. I have had a family emergency that has kept me away from my computer for the past few days but if you’re having exam problems and you send me an email, I promise I will get back to you quickly.
Any other questions, just drop me an email!
Lecture videos for Tuesday, September 8 are now posted on our lectures page! I also added an optional Office Hours session on Tuesday from 3:00 – 4:00, in case you have questions or want to vent.
I’ll be posting Thursday’s lectures as soon as possible, in case you really want to get nuts over the long weekend. I’d advise you to get out and enjoy the nice weather instead, though. There will always be too much to study, and too little time, and you need to be sure you’re taking care of yourself. I hope you’re doing as many of these things as possible:
I’ll post some convincing and highly-regarded research articles supporting the importance of the above habits later on – but for now I just want to encourage you to make time for yourself, starting now. You are important! Okay, I’m done.
I mentioned in this post that you should be getting an automated email from ExamSoft with more details on your exam performance – but some of you mentioned that you hadn’t received that email. So I did some digging, and it turns out that ExamSoft has changed the way they release that data (without letting anyone know, but whatever…).
Student results used to be released by email – but now they are released to your student portal. What’s a student portal, you say? And how do you get your results from it?
Here’s a quick guide that answers those questions.
Just a quick reminder: there’s an optional post-exam review session running right now – feel free to join in if you have any questions about the exam!
I’ve finalized the scores for exam 1, and posted them to Canvas. You guys did really, really well! The class MEAN (seriously, the mean!) was 95.7% (or 38.3/40). This makes me happy!
You should have received an automated email from ExamSoft with your final score, as well as a list of any of the questions you got wrong.
Also, as you may have seen on our lectures page, I’ve scheduled an optional post-exam review session for Thursday, September 3, from 2:05-2:55. Since you did so well, I don’t think it would be useful for me to go through the entire exam, question by question. So I’m making this an open session where you can ask anything you want about the exam. 🙂
This post contains the specifics and logistics for our first exam in General Histology (DDS 6214). It includes all the standard information, as well as the answers to the questions that came up in our Exam Review session yesterday (see Q &A section at the end). Please email me if you have any questions not answered here!
The exam is scheduled for Friday, August 28, and you may take it any time between 12:01 am to 11:59 pm that day. The start time for downloading the exam is 12:01 am on Friday, August 28, and the password for opening the exam is Summer2020. Once you open the exam you have a maximum of two hours to complete the exam. All submissions must be uploaded by 11:59 pm on Friday, August 28, in order to receive a grade.
There are 40 questions on the exam, and the lecture breakdown is as follows:
Intro to Histology: 1 question on the H&E stain
Embryology: 6 questions
Epithelium: 7 questions
Muscle Tissue: 7 questions
Connective Tissue: 6 questions
Cartilage and Bone: 8 questions
Neuro Tissue: 5 questions
There will not be any tissue microscopic images on the exam, but there may be an EM image of the sarcomere as we discussed in the exam review (see questions 15 and 18 in the Exam 1 Review Kahoot). Finally, please see the Sample Exam Questions post for information on my question-writing style.
You will take this exam using Examplify installed on your PC/Macintosh laptop or desktop computer. If Examplify is currently installed, it may require an update and computer restart before the exam If it is not installed, you should download and install the most up-to-date version of Examplify before the exam.
This exam will be remotely proctored using ExamID and ExamMonitor. This means you will take a photo of yourself at the start of the exam for identity verification and you will be recorded during the exam. Thus, only laptops/desktops with a working camera & microphone and Chrome or Firefox browsers can be used to complete the exam. Please note, iPads are not compatible with the ExamMonitor software and may not be used for this exam.
I have enabled the digital notepad and highlighter within the Examplify software. There will be no scratch paper allowed. Also, just as if we were in the classroom, there will be no additional electronics allowed such as phones, tablets, smart watches, headphones, etc.
If you experience any anomalies while taking the exam (examples include barking dogs, interruption by a family member, etc.) please email me at kkrafts@umn.edu immediately after completing the exam to let me know.
Please access this link for a quick troubleshooting guide for Examplify for your reference.
After you take the exam, you will immediately receive your raw score. Final scores will be emailed to you as soon as possible after I have had the opportunity to review the exam metrics. An optional post-exam review session is scheduled for 2:05 – 2:55 on Thursday, September 3.
A couple questions came up during our Exam Review session yesterday:
Q. Will we be allowed to use scratch paper during the exam?
A. No, unfortunately, no scratch paper is allowed during proctored exams. I have enabled the digital scratch pad option for your use during the exam, though.
Q. What happens if my wifi goes out during the exam?
A.  I asked our ExamSoft resource person about this, and here is his answer: The exam is downloaded to the student’s computer, so ExamSoft does not rely on WIFI to take the exam; just to download and upload the exam. If WIFI goes down during an exam, the student’s exam will upload the next time they connect.
Just a quick update to let you know that I’ve added an extra Office Hour right after our Exam Review tomorrow. I just extended our Zoom meeting time until 4 pm, and I’ll stay on after we finish our Exam Review, in case anyone still has questions. This is totally optional – I just want to be sure that there is enough open time for questions after we finish our Kahoot.
You may have noticed when you were watching the embryology lecture that the video ended after the discussion of slide 47. There was actually another 5 minutes of lecture, but the recording system shut down early that day. There are actually just a couple things that you need to remember from those last few slides – and I’ll list those for you below – but first, here’s a short video explaining those last few slides.
Here is the embryology lecture video covering those remaining slides. The part to watch starts at 1:50:30 and ends at 1:55:45. I wish I could just post the actual 5 minute clip for you, rather than the whole 2 hour video – but I can’t edit this video yet.
Slide 48 (above) explains what happens to the pharyngeal grooves (most just disappear) and pouches (some of them give rise to important structures). For this slide, just remember the origins of the thymus (3rd pouch) and parathyroids (superior = 4th and 5th pouches, inferior = 3rd pouch).
Slide 49 (above) shows what can happen if the grooves don’t close properly during embryogenesis: you can get cysts (which are enclosed under the skin), or sinuses (which have an open end on the skin surface). This slide just shows you an example of how this stuff is actually clinically relevant – so for this slide, you don’t need to memorize anything!
Slides 50-53 just review what we covered, and show you when we’ll be covering the rest of embryology. Nothing to memorize from these slides!
