decision making: what to do?

Last Wednesday, October 13,2010 we got our test#1 back. Surprisingly, half of the class failed with the majority of people having grades of 60 and below. We were given the opportunity as a class to 1) decide on a proposal on how to improve our grades 2) it has to be agreed by everyone in class 3) present it to professor at the end of class for final approval. The professors instruction was simple and vague. We had the remaining period of class roughly 30 minutes to formulate this "grade booster/upgrade". Also, we were given the chance to design the next exam format since we as a class addressed the issues we had with it.

From my point of view, this was just too much decision making for a student to make. It was unconventional for me to decide since it is usually the professor making these type of decisions. But in this class, we were put in that role. Given the time constraint, I have to say, this process was frustrating. At some point, it was hard to get the attention of the whole class and there was definitely confusion as to what we are proposing and planning to get.

Every behavior in the decision making conflict had a certain person as example. A person who is "competing to win" will definitely voice out their opinion and be aggressive about it. They are going to argue that their idea is the best option available. Most people in the class however, was in the "avoidance" phase, relying on others to voice out their thoughts and are just going with the flow.  Another behavior I observed in class was "accommodation", the people who got a higher grade definitely just went with whatever was being argued because either way they are still getting the better mark.
I believe I was a mix of "compromise" and "collaborating". I argued that hey, since we know that our professor is tricky and tough in test making we should do something about the way we review or study for the exam. Experiencing the test gave us the example of what he really looks for and what he wants us to know which is the DETAILS we thought weren't as important. I personally overlooked some of those concepts and now I know better. DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, GOT TO PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS. So, tweaking and playing with the exam format is not really as beneficial. Also, arguing what to keep and what to get rid off completely is hurting the other people who prefer and shine in a particular category. One person argued that we respond to tests differently so it was definitely a hard choice to make. A variety of question format is ideal in my opinion because everyone has different testing specialties and strategies. I also voiced out that usually, people do horrible in the first exam since everyone is just adjusting and getting to know the professor and his way of testing. Now that we all know the format and have first-hand experience with it, we can plan and improve on studying for the next tests.

The proposal of the happy meal "grade upgrade" which composed of having the curve, an extra credit opportunity up to 10 points and dropping the lowest grade, I didn't understand it the first time because at some point of the madness I just got lost and confused. So I just asked what it was really about and once I understood, I just went with it.

I wonder, if we really did tackle all the alternatives of getting a better grade. We really didn't think about the people below the median grade. I also realized that we didn't handle the extra credit within the test format and we didn't specify how much point value we were going to give it. If we were given the chance to decide again, maybe we should break into groups of five and start brainstorming ideas then conjugate as a bigger group to pitch in the ideas we talked about in our small groups. Definitely have a leader in charge so he/she can organize everyone. I have to stress this point again: Little details do matter. Ive noticed that I've said this a lot but I think in management, in order for things to run smoothly and successfully we have to look at every possible scenario and to not overlook anything. Since there is a slim chance of having this whole situation repeated, may I suggest creating a study group for the next test?