General Chemistry at Penn State
CHEM 112
FALL HOME PAGE
Instructor Info
Syllabus
General Information
Exam Schedule
Fall 2008
Answers to Frequently asked Questions
Table of Contents
- No more Requests: I tried the basic skills today, but I was only able to do the test 3 times before it locked me out. I thought the maximum was 8. Is there anything I can do to open the test back up?
- Scores not showing up in Angel: After taking the first basic skills quiz online and receiving confirmation that I earned full credit it didn't record that I completed the task. I even logged back into Angel and it still didn't say my grade. I just want to be assured that it went through. Why is this not happening? I even retook the quiz again and nothing showed that I did in fact complete the quiz.
- What is the difference between a REQUEST and a SUBMISSION?
NO More Requests:
The request limit is PER 24 hours not per calendar day. So if you took any quizzes within the 24-hour period prior to the time when you received the error message, it counts as one of your 8 requests. As the day proceeds, you will be allowed more requests as a request from the previous day “expires”. If you look over your submissions, you may be able to figure out when you will be allowed to take the test again.
Example: At 8pm, you begin to take the first Basic Skill Test (Nomenclature). You spend ~20 – 30 minutes taking each quiz and after 8 attempts, you receive the message that you have exceeded the number of times you are allowed to submit. It is 11:45 pm when you receive this message. The next afternoon at 2pm, you try to take the Nomenclature quiz again but on your very first attempt you are told you have exceeded the number of times you are allowed to submit. WHY? Since the limit is PER 24 hour period, you must wait until 8pm before you will be able to take a quiz again. Between 8pm and 11:45pm, your 8 attempts from the previous day will “expire” and you will again have attempts for the next24 hour period.
So the first time you take the test in a 24-hour period becomes the beginning of your “day”. This is an idiosyncrasy of the software that cannot be avoided. The main point is: do not put these off until the last minute and study before taking the tests so you will not NEED 8 requests to be successful.
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Scores not showing in Angel:
The reason you can't see the score is because we cannot retrieve test scores into Angel as frequently as you (and your fellow students) can take them. If you want to check to make sure we have your grades, learn about the Review option. It is described in the instructions for the On-line quizzes posted on the Course Web page. Look for the description of How to Review the Quiz Scores. If you cannot figure it out from the written and/or posted material, see an instructor or TA after class or during office hours and they'll be happy to show you.
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What is the difference between a REQUEST and a SUBMISSION?
Submission: when you select “submit your responses” at the end of a test, you should get a response like the one that follows along with feedback for the test you just completed.
You
received 7 out of a possible 7 points or 100%
There were 7 questions whose answers received full or partial credit.
If you get this response, then your score WILL BE recorded by UTS (and you will be able to verify this via the review process described above). This counts as a submission. The number of submissions is NOT limited for any of the Skill Check Tests, but you are restricted to the 8 requests per 24 hour period and there will be a strict limit of 3 submissions for the Unit Quizzes.
If you are impatient and you select “submit” more than once when the system is slow, you may end up submitting the same quiz twice. It will give you the same score and it will count as two submissions. Do NOT do this!
Request: when you select “Exam” on the Chem 112 Test page (in Angel), this will count as a request even if you do not finish (submit) the test. Below is a list of actions that would cause you to use up a request even though you do not submit a test. Some of these actions can happen without you even noticing you have done it. For example, a dropped wireless connection or refreshing the browser during the quiz will use up requests even if you do not complete the quiz and submit it.
Examples of things that would use up a request:
- When you select Exam in Angel
- If you refresh your browser while taking a quiz
- If you X out your browser window while taking the quiz
- If you have a dropped wireless connection while taking the quiz
- If the quiz is timed out
- If you use the Forward or Back keys on your browser. (You may use the next and previous keys within the software to move back and forth in the test.)
- If you are impatient, you could submit the same quiz twice by clicking submit in succession when the computer response is slow. This will use up two requests and two submissions.
You are encouraged to request tests when you are ready to take and complete the exam in a single sitting. If you are having browser or computer problems, use the computers available in the PSU Student Labs until you are able to fix your computer. Since the request limit is very high relative to the number of submissions, you will not be given additional requests if you use all of them up.
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Mary J. Bojan
Copyright © 2007 . All rights reserved.
Revised: 09/09/07.