For the past 15-years of teaching AP Psychology, I have allowed students to “Shoot the Moon” on the Motivation Unit test. The idea came from my Debate Team students who would endlessly play Hearts (or Speed or BS) in between debate rounds. In Hearts, the object is to avoid having any Hearts at the end of the game… or, if you’re really brave, you can “shoot the moon” and try to take all of the Hearts and win that way. Similarly, the norm in taking a test is to avoid marking any wrong answers, but when “shooting the moon,” students try to get all of the questions wrong — thereby earning 150% on the test. But, just as in the game of Hearts, if one attempts to shoot the moon but misses, one loses. Badly.
The rules of the game are explained at the beginning of the Unit, and students do not have to decide if they want to play until just before the test is passed out. Of course, if a student would rather not risk the extreme impact of failing to shoot the moon, they can opt to take the test as normal: trying to get all of the questions right. Those who do play, sign the chalkboard as their agreement to the terms of the game.
Whereas in normal testing conditions, students are allowed to reassess on any topic that they want, when shooting the moon, there is no safety net. If a student scores 1 out of 60, then they have a 1 out of 60 in the gradebook (until the Midterm, which trumps all grades from the Quarter).
10–20 students in each class will attempt to shoot the moon. The success rate varies; sometimes it’s as high at 80%, and other years it’s just 50%. This year, the success rate hovered around 20%. Very few students got all 60-questions wrong as they’d hoped.
So, why do we do this? It’s a lesson in the Law of Optimum Arousal. The stress of such high-stakes testing causes students to perform worse. There’s also some Hidden Curriculum here in regards to gambling…
All in all, it’s a great learning activity that students, win or lose, seem to enjoy.