Going into elementary, none of us know what final exams are and we are used to the short tests at the end of each unit and hands-on projects in between every lesson. However, after adapting and being raised into this style of learning, we make our way up to high school and there are some big additions to our eduaction; final exams are imporatant tests at the end of each semester to test students on what they have learned from the moment they walked into the classroom. Final exams hinder the learning process of students around the world due to the specific and strategic teaching of school teachers to pass, the last minute studying, and it negatively changes our study habits and will effect us in the long run. Final exams not only have effect on students, but they change the way teachers teach the …show more content…
From the beginnging of the course, students know they will be given a final exam, but most students depend on only memorizing what they know will be on the test. Three weeks to around five days prior to final exams, students are given material that will be on the test; this is the time they are given to memorize and cram their minds with all they can. To study for this test, students study from right after school with their classmates till around one oclock in the morning to learn everything. They stress and worry enough about how much the test is worth for their final grade to sacrifice their time to rest. This rote-learning habit “encourages students to take short-cuts and learn only what is needed for the exam, rather than rewarding those who have worked hard to learn all thet they can throughout the year” (Newton 1). This explains that when given material to study, our strategies to learn are adapted and we only memorize answers to do well. When learning in such a way, we will most likely get the grade we deserve from our studying but after a month or so, the knowledge will be
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
In “More Testing, More Learning,” Patrick O’Malley presents his argument in the essay of why taking major exams at the end of a student’s course harms them more than it does the student any good. O’Malley states that, “Although the last*minute anxiety about midterm and final exams is only too familiar to most college students, many professors may not realize how such major, infrequent, high-stakes exams work against the best interests of the student psychologically and cognitively.” (483) With taking midterms and final exams O’Malley claims that it puts too much stress and too much importance one the one or two days of these major tests than in the students entire term. His argument is that with less tests given to the student takes away from
As a college student, is the idea of your final grade being based off of just a midterm and final very stressful? O 'Malley argues in his essay "More Testing, More Learning" that professors should give out more quizzes and assignments to reduce the stress and procrastination students face before midterms and finals. Although this might be helpful for a high school setting, it would not be completely efficient at a college level. This is because frequent testing takes up a significant amount of students and professors time, are added stress throughout the year, will not fix a students procrastination, and having high stake tests prepares students for their future. Some of O 'Malley 's ideas seem reasonable and would help students while others are an inconvenience for the professor and students.
During my last semester at college, I postponed thinking about preparing for my tests. As each test day came closer, I got worried and desperately started cramming. I drank enough coffee to keep the whole city awake and woke up thinking that I would get a low grade. Eventually, I realized that students who always earned A's on their tests were not just lucky, but they really studied hard all through the semester. There are different ways to prepare for a specific test, and each individual must perfect his or her own style. I have developed a process that involves five steps to prepare for a test.
Developing studying skills that incorporate testing myself will take the ease of being overwhelmed, as well as help with concentration, and becoming more comfortable and confident. Practicing recalling information over time will help in recalling for an actual assessment, by retaking study guides, and creating at home pre-test. 3The information provided by Karpicke and Roediger can me as an educator and other educators by considering various methods of learning. Using test as an instrument of learning rather than solely an assessment on knowledge can be essential in helping students’ learning effectiveness. Since the experiment showed that the learning conditions where retrieval was repeated caused students to have 80% of the pairs recalled compared to the 33% of where retrieval was not practice shows that testing can be used as a tool of learning. In my classroom I would implement take pre-test for homework and/or extra credit assignments, as well as implement classroom activities such as games where testing occurs in a communal group setting. Retrieval is easier when related pieces of information are stored in close association with one another (Ormord p. 212). Therefore, I would have students get in pairs and test each other on the information as soon as the lesson is over as a form of review and test
In the article, “The Critical Importance of Retrieval For Learning” the researchers were studying human learning and memory by presenting people with information to be learned in a study period and testing them on the information that they were told to learn in order to see what they were able to retain. They also pointed out that retrieval of information in a test, is considered a neutral event because it does not produce learning. Researchers were trying to find a correlation between the speed of something being learned and the rate at which it is forgotten
There has always been controversy on whether exit exams should be required for a high school student’s graduation. Exit exams cause narrow statewide curriculum, too much emphasis on a single test, stress for the students, and stress for the teachers trying to reach state score standards; however on the optimistic view, standardized testing assures that students work harder, schools discover areas of weakness, and allows schools to improve performance. Exit exams hurt students who pass or fail them.Placing so much importance on one test, that is currently at a tenth grade level is asinine. These tests are supposed to help us improve, strengthen the students weaknesses, and give the students a better understanding of the subject they are learning; not keep them at a level that will never prepare them for anything. Too much emphasis on a single test gets students nowhere. Many critics say that high school graduates are unprepared for college, because of this testing many graduates go to college unprepared. The students then have to take remedial courses, because they can not handle college level work(chronicle 1). These tests are to prepare students for the classes and work ahead, but all the do is hold students back. Many teachers fear that they are sending the students into secondary education unprepared. If these tests are meant to help students with their future, but fail so miserably at doing so then why have them at all? This is the growing question in the students, teachers and parents mind. If these are meant to help why haven’t the students seen results?
Pressure is being exerted on students to pass, and teachers to enable their students to pass the standardized tests being presented to them. This takes much classroom time that could be spent instructing students on what might be more valuable information, and instead study for the test by what some consider rote memorization (Silva). Experiments have been done seeing how much different teaching approaches were before and after the implementation of standardized testing (Desimone). These experiments demonstrated how vastly the difference between teaching to the test and teaching what the instructor believes is the most valuable knowledge and the best way to present this knowledge. If there is a disconnect between what America’s teachers believe is best to know, and what is on the examinations, then one of the two is flawed, and it is not likely to be what the teachers are teaching.
Some students argue that cheating is the easiest, and the best way to get a good grade. For example, you’re up all night doing homework for other classes, but you forgot to study for this one quiz you will have early in the morning for your first period class. You start panicking heavily, becau...
One of the most stressful aspects of high school and ultimately college is the ability (or lack thereof) to form good study habits. One may often hear the dramatic tale of a college student staying up all night in order to receive a good grade on his or her test the following morning. This student either completely fails the test, or does really well. These results depend on the students themselves and their ability to study in this manner. In this essay, I will compare and contrast fellow two of the most popular forms of studying—periodic and cramming—in an effort to allow high school students to effectively choose which form may best work for them.
The test taking lessons have helped me learn more about having good strategies for a test. I feel that with these lessons learned I can have more confidence to take a test and pass it. In this report I want to show why test taking is an important skill to learn. I also wanted to describe how I have prepared for test in the past. I also wanted to discuss three strategies I have learned from the computer tutorial in class and how I have changed my study habits so I can do better on test.
Students are being tested on elements that were seen on their pre-test. More specifically, the students are being tested on elements of the pre-test that they did not score well on. After more than four weeks of instruction on these elements, this assessment will project the evidence of student learning in regard to five specific learning goals. I will collect this data by having students complete the test with their answers for this assessment. By using a multiple choice test, students can receive immediate feedback on their assessment because a machine automatically tabulates correct and incorrect answers as the test is fed through the machine. My rationale for this data-collection method is based on the fact that it provides immediate feedback to the students and myself. Quick turnaround is essential when evaluating the evidence of student
Sydney J. Harris argues that student always complain of not having time to learn the subject by really understanding the concepts and implications because they have a lot of topics to cover in a very short period, so they just memorize the information for the sake of passing the exam. Harris believes that student should be given the opportunity to show their knowledge, and to truly learn the subject. For example, if the student should study ten chapters of biology for his exam. He would be focusing on memorizing more than he is learning about the chapters, so if he is studying to be a doctor, and he should know the function of every
Standardized tests are used to evaluate a student’s performance, however, tests do not take external factors into account. This already means that tests are often inaccurate methods of measuring a students academic potential. Also, the tests do a disservice to students as they evaluate their proficiency at a time of testing, rather than their growth and improvement over the course of the year. The tests have become an outdated method of challenging students and only have negative impacts at this point. The tests develop high levels of stress in students, which is not healthy for an individual during the most important development years of their lives. Eliminating these tests will assist students in the long run as they can accommodate more time towards learning information rather than stressing over a single test. By replacing tests with more in-class lessons students will be free of constant stress and still learn the curriculum. Research shows that students are unable to remember information on standardized tests in the long run, therefore, by spending more time learning and understanding information, students are able to have a better understanding of topics. Therefore, by removing standardized tests students will be provided with a better, more effective, and fair educational
One of my favorite quotes from Stacey Green states, that if we don’t make learning relevant to our students, then they just learn the answer from the test and forget when it is done. (Vaques, Sneider and Comer page 2) When students learn because of memorization and are not engaged and interested in what is taught, the information becomes a victim of your short term memory, where as when it is