Monday, December 14, 2009
Why take a test?
Personally, i believe that taking a test/quiz is a good way to see how well someone has learned a particular topic. However, when tests get longer and longer, it becomes less about understanding and more about memorization. This is why it is better to take multiple small quizzes than one big test. Quizzes can be focused on one small piece of material and are an excellent way of judging how well a student know a topic because often, quizzes are either hit or miss. You either get it or you don't, there's not much of a middle ground. Quizzes are also easier for teachers to grade. Another benefit is that if a student bombs a quiz, they can make it up by maintaining a decent grade on the other small quizzes. If a student bombs a test, it could take a whole quarter of 100%'s to bring that student's grade back up. Doing bad on a test would also bring down the moral of a student, causing him to dislike the class more and be less inclined to learn.
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I agree with your thoughts on taking quizzes instead of tests. Quizzes accomplish way more in my mind too. They are usually given once a week, and are about 3-5 questions so they aren't that hard, and yet they really reinforce the material in our head. Quizzes also force the student to do the assigned reading, and that way we are not left with the whole unit to read at the end. Another thing that teachers could do is have projects instead of tests. Projects are just a great alternative, because they are hands on and fun. Teachers may be worried about the students not knowing the information, if the administration decided to give projects instead of tests, but because of the prior quizzes, the student already has the important facts in there head, so the teachers don't have to worry about them not having the material down.
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