Why do profs give exams like this?

[Andy Resnick]

<snip>
You are right that a teacher should consider what it is he/she is actually measuring with his questions/scoring. <snip>

I could not agree more; I would only add that the teacher should *clearly* communicate their metric/rubric to the students.

There are lots of things that can be measured with any test: factual knowledge, reasoning ability, creativity, communication skills and the ability to deal with a stressful situation are a few. By selecting a particular format, the instructor also chooses to focus on one or a few of these.

 

[Jack21222]

And yes, you really do want to penalize guessing. Admitting you don't know how to do a problem is a much, much better response than making a blind guess.

I strongly disagree with this. If a student is able to eliminate choices, that demonstrates some knowledge of the subject, and should have a positive expected value.