Proofing pays off for Penn Valley psychology instructor

Penn Valley Psychology Instructor Susan Higgins shows off the upcoming edition of a test bank she co-authored thanks to her sharp proofing skills.

Three years ago, Susan Higgins was going through the normal routine of preparing for her classes. As she reviewed the test bank that accompanied the seventh edition of Developing Person Through the Lifespan by Berger, she noticed some errors and reported them to the publisher.

"After a few e-mails, I received an e-mail that said since I was so good at finding their errors, they would pay me to go through the test bank and text book and find everything that needed to be updated," says the MCC-Penn Valley psychology instructor.

A year later the same publishing company contacted her again to co-author the test bank for a textbook on child/adolescent psychology and lifespan psychology.  "For any old test bank questions from the two books that were combining, take out any questions that were not relevant and add in new questions to cover the new material.  I wrote multiple choice/true-false/short answer and essay questions for that new test bank.

The company was so impressed with her keen proofing skills, they contacted her again last year to serve as co-author on another test bank. 

"This time, for the new (eighth) edition of the Berger Developing Person Through the Lifespan which was published this spring," Higgins explains.  "Once again, going through the text book page by page and taking out any questions that were no longer relevant and writing new questions to cover the new material.  So when Penn Valley receives their eighth edition Berger Lifespan materials this summer, my name will be a co-author on the test bank."