Answering Student Questions during Examinations: A Descriptive Study of Faculty Beliefs

Examinations are used to evaluate individual student learning. Therefore, fair and consistent administration practices are essential. One issue associated with testing practices includes answering individual student questions, i.e. how should faculty respond to individual questions and should faculty permit students to ask questions? Findings from this descriptive study revealed faculty believe answering questions disrupts the test environment, inhibits effective monitoring of the test environment, and could provide unfair hints to students who ask questions. Yet, faculty permit question asking to clarify questions, to provide definitions, and to appear receptive to student needs. Recommendations for nursing education and research are provided