As part of preparing students to write an exam, you should provide clear information about what topics will be covered on the exam, and what types of questions they can expect. This information should flow from your course outcomes, which determine the most appropriate format and the content that should be studied for the exam (see drafting an exam for more information on this). However, it can be challenging to provide the appropriate level of information so that the average student is prepared and not surprised by the content of the exam, and they are not given to many specifics that would invalidate the effectiveness of the testing itself.
What is appropriate information will depend on your objectives. For example, setting aside any judgement as to whether this is a reasonable use of student and instructor time, if the goal is for students to memorize certain facts, they should know that memorization will be on the final. For example, if the students are expected to memorize the five stages of a process, it could be quite appropriate to directly tell students that there will be a set of questions focused on definitions and memorization. Whereas, if an outcome is that students should demonstrate their ability to decode a given problem and provide a solution in a given amount of time, the instructor would not want to provide the specific question that will be asked. They should however, be able to provide sufficient guidance that the students know that they will be solving this type of general question on the exam. As the course’s formative assessments should be aligned with the course objectives, there should be some similarity between the types of questions asked as formative assessments and those asked on a final exam. Students should have the opportunity to practice with the knowledge and skills on which they will be tested.
Students will ask many questions during lectures, and also during office hours, as to what is on the exam. As course instructor, you should be prepared to answer these questions in a consistent manner, taking into account your decisions about how much is an appropriate amount of information that should be given. Being willing to spend some class time going over the exam structure can save repeating information to many people in office hours, helps all students prepare, not just those that ask, and allows for greater consistency.
As part of this process, some students will ask questions with the goal of having you give additional information about the exam, “fishing for information”, in order to reduce the challenge of the exam questions. So, your goal is to ensure that this does not result in additional information that you did not want to disclose, being given to the student. While it can “spoil” an assessment if the information is given to all students, it is particularly problematic if the information is given to only one student as they then have an unfair advantage. Thus, you need to have a clear idea as to how you are going to answer all student questions in this regard, and find a way to be consistent.