This essay will look into the pros and cons and techniques involved in preparing for a controlled asssessment. It will also overlook how certain revison strategies worked in an actual exam, and how indviduals can cope with the stress of preparing for and sitting an examination. (1.1) 'Exams are considered as a source of grading the capabilities of students. It is a standard system to test knowledge which is being practiced in almost all schools. It is the fear of both, bright and weak students' (Online;www.wortharead.com) as it states here even the 'bright' students can develop an anxiety around exam times but are controlled assessments a positive way of monitoring the knowldge of an indivdiual? Exmas often provide an ideal way of broadening …show more content…
An Open book exam is where the examinee is able to bring in a certain amount of notes that they are able to refer to throughout, this can encourage more understanding of the critera rather than the mezoristaion or recall of said criteria. Some open book exams also allow the questions to be handed out before the actual date of the exam so that the students can collect all relevant information, the actual exam itself may also be sent home for the students to complete in their own time. The advantages of using an open book exam is that it allows less regurgatation of information and can help to see if the examinee can truly understand and synthisize a subject, the idea that notes or refernces are allowed inside the examining room can also help to put students at ease as majority of the information is already there, so they can truly focus on getting what they understand wrote down. Open book exams also help to enhance a students note taking skills as they will require a comprhensive list of notes, leaving out all unnessercary information and focusing on key points. On the other hand by allowing students to bring in their own notes, there might also be a chcance that they will focus too much on searching for the correct answers in their notes, or second guessing their own knowledge thus wasting valuble time on questions they may already know the answer to. 'Students may believe …show more content…
Emotion focused Coping is the idea of coping with the psychological stresses of an exam, the kind of stress that this method deals with is a stress that is out of an indviduals control, and is often anxiety related. An example od Emotion-focued coping is 'Emotional disclosure. This involves expressing strong emotions by talking or writing about negative events which precipitated those emotions (Pennebaker, 1995)' (online:www.simplepyscology.org) the idea of talking through ones emotions can prove extremely beneficial to an individual experiencing an episode of stress, it can often help to vent and verbally say what their thinking, it can also be reassuring to know that others feel to same way. However speaking about an indviduals fears over an exam can somtimes make the anxiety worse and even spiral on to more concerning fears, also their piers may not recipicate the same fears which can be disheartening and make the fear more
Some students simply do not test well, others try their hardest and still cannot reach the impracticable standards set for them. The individuals who create these tests do not understand the pressures of being a student, or the struggle to answer thirty-five questions in a compressed time period. One test cannot accurately measure the intelligence of a student.
In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a student as well as the admission into certain programs. The test results also assist various schools in determining the proper curriculum, evaluate a specific school system, or a particular school related program.
Standardized tests have historically been used as measures of how students are compared with one another or how much of a particular curriculum they have learned throughout the semester or year. Consequently, standardized tests are being used to make major decisions about students, such as grade promotion or high school graduation, and higher education evaluation. Various numbers of students across America have had to repeat classes because of the way standardized tests are used to pass or fail students. Although the tests require students to retain information until the end of the semester, I believe it is wrong to allow just a single test to decide whether an entire semester’s work will be rewarded with the credits that may have been well-earned. Some standardized testing such as the SAT, are not fair to students who may come from a poor educational background and do not retain information as their fellow peers. Students are at a disadvantage if they have test taking anxiety, which is a condition that many students suffer from “a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well” (Test Anxiety). Standardized tests give a false pretense of objectivity and consequently of equal opportunity. However, "the only goal of standardized tests is the scoring, which is done by machine" (Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives). It is made clear that the purpose of testing is to provide information to be used in conjunction with, not in pl...
The educator is giving the student a tool so he or she can break down the process of his or her errors. Once a child can acknowledge the concepts they truly do not understand, then an educator assist the student with the correct methods. If the error involves simple calculation, then students can learn better habits as to take their time or be more cautious. They can also incorporate better lifestyle behaviors before taking a test such as, retiring to bed earlier the night before or eating a hearty breakfast in the morning. These types of assessment practices and customs can build positive self-confidence in children who in turn will succeed. On the contrary, if they have negative premeditated thoughts of impending doom they will be sure to fail. It is known that a positive attitude in any situation is the greatest foundation for success. Now that I have returned to school with the ambition of becoming an educator, I am extremely pleased to witness some of the positive evolutions regarding assessments. Stiggin’s point of view is very well noted and will stay with me throughout my teaching career. Although, I am very aware this is a subject matter that always has room for improvements and should continuously be under
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.
Assessment has been the greatest challenge in my development as a professional. My coursework as supported my growth in this area, especially in understanding the broad range of assessments used to support students’ growth and development. My courses have also supported my understanding of how ongoing observational assessment and standards-based measures can be used to inform instruction and support the cycle of observation, reflection and planning. Coursework
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
It has been seen that factors like one’s economic and racial background can heavily influence one’s performance on a tests, as they are not given the same opportunities as those given to more affluent students. A student’s emotional well-being is also at stake as many students come out of tests doubting their overall intelligence, even though they were quite confident in the material and so much is hinged on test scores that it places a great deal of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests also restrict teacher’s ability to learn due to the restrictions that standardized test place on the material being taught, which makes it very hard for teachers to go beyond the required and teach more interesting things. Due to the issues that have arisen from standardized tests many alternative solutions have been used and have been proven to be successful. Some good alternative solutions have been limiting the amount of standardized tests given by sampling a few students, shortening the length of exams, and allotting more time to complete these tests. Other alternatives look to more qualitative approaches in learning by implementing things like projects and portfolios that give an excellent insight to a student’s performance and
One component of test anxiety is called the emotional component. It includes different kinds of physiological responses, such as sweaty palms, increased heart rate, and dry mouth. Experiencing this component of test anxiety causes stress, which can interfere with processing information and increase the chances of making mistakes. To reduce the emotional component, researchers have found that students should participate in relaxation exercises.
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
In the past, assessments were popularly conducted for the purpose of accreditation, but with the growing change in the quality of education, it has become evident that assessments aren’t just products to qualification but as Sieborger (1998) identifies, is that assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting knowledge to make valid and justifiable judgements about the learners performance and the assessors ability to transfer and establish knowledge to the learners.
Assessment, in the context of education, was defined by Lambert, D (2000, pag 4) as the processs of gathering, recording and using information about pupils' responses to educational tasks. Despite some can consider that assessment is separated from the learning process, assessment is, in fact, an essential part of the learning proccess. Maguire, M. and Dillon, J. (2007, pag 213) pointed out that assessment is intrincately bound-up in the teaching-learning cycle.
I am able to cope well with most emotions and circumstances that come my way, but there are times where the bottled up emotions I’ve suppressed for so long comes out on their own. The ability to control every emotion and have a counteractive precaution for it is rare. Most of the basic emotions, I can handle quite well, such as being happy or sad depending on what situation I am in. Emotions like anger and anxiety are a different case. Handling anger is not always a problem, but there are few instances in my life where the littlest of things made me angry. Anxiety, on the other hand, I have to control over when it comes to taking exams, such as Organic Chemistry. I try to calm myself by saying that everything is fine and the exam is not as fearful as it seems, but it does not work on most cases and throughout the exam, the constant feeling that it is possible for me to fail surrounds my thoughts.
A well created test can measure learning and diagnose a student’s weakness (Merrow, 4). In testing, the idea is for the student to get the correct answer on information they know and incorrect answers on the information they do not. However, a testing error may occur. A testing error is when a student gets an answer correct of information they did not actually know or an answer incorrect, they may have actually known (Gellman, 30)The people who create these tests want straightforward measures. However, test designers do not design these tests to measure what a student can do academically (Fusaro, 1). Large testing companies produce tests and sell them all over the country. This causes the test to be not specialized for the school or county and students do not do as well as they could have if the test was specialized (Popham, 4).three possible ways of testing a student’s knowledge exists: multiple choices, answer in essay form, or they are asked to perform a task and then graded on the performance (Merrow, 5). Some tests are designed to assess an individual’s performance, like an
As it is, examinations are timed written or oral assessments held at the end of an academic term. It serves to asses a student’s knowledge and comprehension of all the subjects he has studied over the course of the term. Rather than tracking a student’s progress over the course of the term, it judges his/her ability over a handful of written or oral pieces. This is obviously not an accurate indication of one’s progress. Take for example the case of an intelligent and dexterous student who never fails to impress teachers and peers alike in his daily homework and assignments, but fell miserably short of the marks when it comes to the examinations, due to unforeseen circumstances that are not within his influence. These so-called “unforeseen circumstances” might be familial problems t...