Sample Exit Interview Assessment

At Virginia Tech, the Department of Mathematics annually conducts interviews with 10 randomly selected graduating seniors. The interviews are conducted in groups of five students because students are less inhibited in small groups than in individual interviews. These interviews have no impact on student grades or graduation. They are used solely for program-level assessment. The interviews are conducted as follows:

A set of thirty-one written questions was presented to the students, but they were discouraged from preparing for the session in any way. The questions were specific ones, requiring basic knowledge of mathematical principles and theorems. The students were asked to respond to the questions orally and in writing, using the blackboard available in the room where they were interviewedÂ…. The approach taken is to ask more difficult questions in an area when one is answered correctly and a less difficult question when the answer is incorrect. (Riess & Muffo, p. 130)

Riess, R. D., & Muffo, J. A. (1996). Exit interviews in mathematics. In Banta, T. W., Lund, J. P., Black, K. E., & Oblander, F. W. (Eds.) Assessment in practice: Putting principles to work on college campuses (pp. 129-131). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Last Modified: March 3, 2010