Comment from Student: The test was too long! If I had been given more time, I could have made an A.

My Response: Yes, the test requires a very efficient effort in order to get an A, and a reasonably efficient approach to make even a 75 or 80. Is that fair? Yes. Here's why ...

All the tests consist primarily of recycled homework questions. Anyone with sufficient time could sort through the homework to see how they had worked the problem, and then translate that solution into a solution to the corresponding test question. Doing that doesn't require a very deep level of understanding. So the price you pay for getting recycled questions is that you have to work fairly fast. I intentionally don't give enough time for you to go back and shuffle through all your old homework to remind yourself how to approach each question.

Several times I've polled a class to ask if they would prefer shorter test where all the questions were different from the homework questions. Every time I've posed that question the answer has been a resounding "NO".

The tests require more than just that you do a good job of cataloging the solutions to the homework. They require that you have an understanding of how to think through at least some of the problems.