Cadet Online Testing - Anyone having Problems?

[Ron1319]

I think that your expectations may be unrealistic.  Clearly that cadet is going to be exceptional and if provided a good program will and should be a future Spaatz cadet. 

My expectations for a 12 year old are:

1) They read the material
2) They gain some understanding of it
3) They pass the test while being allowed to look stuff up in the book quickly with knowledge of where to look based on their study time
4) They apply that knowledge as they progress through the program and as they mature with age

They can reference back on the applicable material, but as with life and all studies, I expect them to gain a more thorough understanding of leadership by "doing" than through reading about it in the book.  Hopefully the material provides them some framework, some motivation, and gets them to consider the concepts.  The cadets staff and their CAP leadership experience should reflect many of the concepts.

Many of them are also abstract and exposure is adequate.  I doubt Maslow's Hierarchy comes up very frequently in many of our considerations when making management decisions in our daily business life.  People intuitively understand that their employees want time to have fun and be with their loved ones.  We also understand that they need breaks to eat.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Ron,

I was 13 when I joined CAP. I took the tests closed book. I learned the material. It's not hard. As much as I love google and ctrl+f, it's not the way to learn, just to pass.

[titanII]

I find that if a cadet does it the "right way"- reading the chapter several times, studying a proper amount, and taking the test online- then the cadet can not only pass the test with 90's or 100's but also retain a good bit of the info learned. But (obviously) there are going to be more cadets whose aim is to pass, not retain info.

[Ron1319]

Read the chapter "several times" as in more than twice?  I don't think that is a proper study habit to be teaching or encouraging.  I would never have survived freshman year of high school much less engineering school if I over studied to that degree. 

I have taken several of the Phase I and II exams in aerospace and leadership to determine the difficulty level of the material.  I have passed several without opening the book.  The level of difficulty now is higher because they're trying to make exams that are conducive to open book testing.  The problem is that many of the questions are misleading in an attempt to be too tricky rather than test understanding.  They are not, however, college level courses that require great depth of understanding and countless hours of study in order to pass the tests.  They're simple, even for many 12 year olds.

Don't make it harder than it is, or your cadet progression rates will reflect that.

[Майор Хаткевич]

As a C/NCO I began to do this:

Read Chapter
Read Chapter and highlight key words
Read highlighted key words, make notes
(On way to meeting) Go over highlighted key words.

I never again failed a test doing that.

I found retention also went up if I actually copied the highlighted words/notes on paper.

When I was the C/CC, the cadets that followed that system passed their tests and progressed better than their peers.

Do I do that in college? Of course not. Then again, 90% of what I'm "learning" I won't use past the final exam.

[titanII]

Read the chapter "several times" as in more than twice?  I don't think that is a proper study habit to be teaching or encouraging.  I would never have survived freshman year of high school much less engineering school if I over studied to that degree. 

I don't think that is over-studying. CAP is an extracurricular activity, which, like every other, needs to have some time at home put into it. I wasn't suggesting that the cadets over-study or waste their time. I was just suggesting a strategy so that cadets would pass easily and retain that info.
YMMV