Something that mystifies me is why many of my colleagues don’t let students keep their graded exams. They let the students see the grade and then take back the exams. The whole point of grading is that people could look at their mistakes and learn from them. The grade itself is meaningless if you can’t analyze what you did wrong.
I just spoke to a student who wants to do better on the final but she has no idea what her problem areas are because she never got a chance to study her mistakes on the previous exams.
These graded exams only clutter the offices. Why does one want to keep them?
Do you return exams to students and let them have them?
Clarissa's Blog 
One keeps the exams, I assume, in order to recycle the questions. If the exams are out there in the world, then future students will be able to study them and answer the questions correctly should the instructor re-use them. There are tales at my institution of frats and sororities maintaining files of old exams for members to use for just this purpose.
I prefer to just write fresh exam questions each semester and let the students keep their graded work.
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Your colleagues like recycling the same exams year after year, in part or in full. Also some fraternities (and sororities, but mostly fraternities) keep a pool of past exams so their members can get the answer key and ace the tests without studying. And with the internet, previous exams can easily be posted online or shared between friends.
This practice is common to law schools as well.
Sometimes profs like to force grades into bell curves, which also means they like to keep people where they are in the distribution. It’s not personal, it’s just easier to sort people at the bottom or the top if opportunities for improvement are suppressed.
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I’m very naive, so I never even considered this possibility. Still, in a language course, knowing exactly what the test is will be of very little help. You either speak a language or not. Even if you get a native speaker to write the responses and then memorize them, that will be extremely useful, too.
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I always just assumed that exams were kept so that they could be recycled.
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I always return midterm tests, quizzes, etc. My department has a policy that final exams must be kept on file for twelve months. At that point, they can be returned if the student wishes, or shredded. The purpose of the one year archive, as I understand it, is to have secure documentation in case a student files a complaint or appeal about a grade.
I never recycle exams. I always make out new ones every term, although sometimes questions that I like may come to mind again, years later.
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They are kept so the questions can be reused. I don’t do this, I give them back and make new questions. We are also told we should keep them as evidence, in case a grade is questioned. I think this is too paranoid.
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I’ve been keeping a ton of “extremely important paperwork” that has to be safeguarded with keys and password, especially when federal and state auditors arrive next month. In my 4 years at this university, I never needed these hugely important papers. I’m thinking of destroying them and freeing the space after the auditors leave.
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I do ask for the exams back. I don’t quite recycle exams but I do have similarities from year to year and don’t want them to end up in a test bank somewhere. But I completely agree that students learn from exams and they can only do so if they can study them. So I have studets write out their answers on a seperate paper….generally in a blue book. THat way they get their work back and I get my exam back. 🙂
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