In preparation for our recent midterm, I did what your average college student does: I crammed the day before and attempted to essentially parrot back the information for the test. And as is also typically the case, I did a mediocre job. But over the course of the midterm, I was struck by how much information one needed to remember and understand in order to pass this cumulative examination of the first half of the course. It seemed, frankly, somewhat unreasonable, particularly for online students. Without the benefit of a professor to visually and verbally engage me in a complex topic that I only have a vague understanding of, the task seemed a bit overwhelming. Additionally, knowing that my midterm score would dramatically change my overall grade if I did not perform well caused me a fair degree of stress.
With all of this in mind, I was intrigued by the notion of the “testing effect”. According to our Lesson 8 commentary, the testing effect suggests that frequent testing would improve our performance due to the increased opportunities to practice retrieving information. In a 2014 piece for The Atlantic, Jessica Lahey explores research on this topic. Henry Roediger , a cognitive psychologist at Washington University asserts that the type of tests used on students comes into play when attempting to maximize their understanding and retention of material. So-called “summative” tests such as the SAT’s and standardized tests fail to teach while being taken, focusing instead on measuring students’ sum total abilities at a particular time. Instead, Roediger promotes the frequent use of “formative” tests throughout the course of the class in order to “reveal gaps and foster active, continuous engagement in the material”. Formative testing allows educators to monitor student progress and adapt accordingly. Meanwhile, students are able to identify areas of strength and target weaknesses.
The theory behind continuous formative testing is in fact the testing effect – information that is repeatedly tested is more likely to be recalled. Roediger posits that students who are tested frequently must remain more engaged, knowing that there is, for instance, a weekly exam. The information these students are learning is thus processed more deeply and with frequent testing, becomes encoded in their long-term memory for longer periods of time. To contrast, cramming information for midterm and final exams usually does not allow for contemplation on the meaning of to-be-remembered information and therefore is no strategy for ensuring the long-term storage of knowledge – crammed information is typically quickly forgotten.
It seems almost sacrilegious to promote the use of frequent testing as a student. However, for courses that require the absorption of complex information, and especially in an online schooling environment where so much time is spent just reading and attempting to comprehend on one’s own – I am an advocate of any method that could help me increase my understanding and performance.
References
Lahey, Jessica. (21 January 2014). Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/students-should- be-tested-more-not-less/283195/
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2015). Psychology 256. Lesson 8: Long-Term Memory: Encoding and Retrieval. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/psych256/001/content/09_lesson/01_page.html
The idea of taking tests more frequently may not be a popular idea but has a valid point. Taking tests more often could also help to lower the anxiety most people feel when taking a test as they become more familiar with the way the test questions are worded and the way the test is presented. As most of us know, as PSU World Campus students, different classes can present online tests in many different ways; some are checking the box or fill in a small blank, while others may require an answer be written into a Word or Excel document and then uploaded or cut and pasted into a specific box. Not knowing what will be expected can lead to more anxiety and less ability to remember what has been learned. At least this has been the case for me and many of my online learning friends. Personally, when there are a few practice quizzes that can be taken before a test or quiz I do much better on the actual quiz. Currently, I am taking a logic course that contains three, ungraded, practice quizzes for each graded quiz; when I take all three of the practice quizzes I feel calmer and earn a higher grade compared to the times I do not take all three practice quizzes. I may not enjoy the extra time spent taking the practice quizzes but my higher grades show how much they help with information retrieval, as well as, lowering anxiety on the graded quiz.
When I studied abroad in Australia for a semester, I studied at University of Queensland which is a research based school. So not knowing this I ended up doing very poorly in my classes because get this,there were no tests. You may think that going to a school with no tests may be the best thing ever but quite the contrary it was the most difficult curriculum I ever faced. The entire semester consisted of 3 assignments, 2 of them being essays and the final exam which was worth 50-75% of my grade! it was terrible I never missed taking tests so much in my life.I found it so much harder to retain the information on the final exam and now i understand why. The thing is that in America many classes, including our 256 class requires quizzes, and believe it or not if you take a quiz today, and retake the same exact quiz next week you will remember majority of your answers without realizing this. I know this because I have experienced this first hand. I am a firm believer in the testing effect, its just a matter of committing your self to taking a self made test every week or so, and also filling it with relevant information. I guarantee you that if you make little mini tests for each chapter that should definitely increase your score for the next exam. If you are interested in a little more information on how quizzing can help you study checkout the link i included from the American Psychological Association.It may be annoying but it sure beats flashcards.Cheers and Good Luck!
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/11/study-smart.aspx
I have seen first-hand the advantages testing provide for learning materials. In my job, as a manager for a supermarket, I have to prepare my employees for certain knowledge checks and tests they will have to pass to advance and to keep us compliant. We handle money transfers at our customer service center and anyone who works in this area of the store must be knowledgeable about potential money laundering and the different forms that are required for different transfers by the IRS. I have found that the most effective way to help teach my employees the information they need is by giving them frequent practice exams of the information. This has so far been the most successful way of teaching the materials and I have had the best luck with this method.
One thing that I could see as a potential issue with frequent testing throughout our classes is the potential to mess up your grades with an exam that is meant to help teach the material rather than test knowledge. A possible solution to this problem would be if we were given practice tests to do to help learn the materials, but the exams would not count against our grades, thus giving us the freedom to use the exams to learn without the need to be perfect on them due to fear of bringing down our grades in the process of learning.
My concern for frequent testing is how it will effect those who simple aren’t good test-takers? I’ve never been one of them, but to a certain degree i can identify with their plight. Students may be over-utilizing their working memory to solve problems on a regular basis; and with the added stress of passing, their working memory capacity is reduced (2012, Paul). It is suggested to actively use positive self-talk, become consciously aware of when the stress response is being activated and calming the body down, and writing down your emotions (2012, Paul). All of these are thought to free up the working memory to allow better studying and test taking (2012, Paul). According to some cognitive scientist, the working memory can hold 4-5 memories at a time (2012, Paul). Chunking, which involves grouping items together, and making certaim task automated process are said to increase storage for working memory (2012, Paul). These methods may assist students that would find it hard to take test in general, but as you stated, their ability should improve with continued practice.
Paul, Annie. 2012, April 13. How to be a Better Test-Taker. The New York Times, retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/education/edlife/how-to-be-a-better-test-taker.html?_r=0
I agree with you on the fact that summative testing is bad. I myself found myself struggling for the midterm exam for the Psychology 256 class. I crammed up all the chapters, and did badly on my midterm. I did a study guide for the entire chapter and studied them. It is impossible for someone to process a 10 page study guide for each chapter into the long term memory and retrieve it later on during the exam. I believe that formative testing is a better choice. Not only does it allow the teacher to find out if the student is having problems on a specific lesson of the class, but it also let the student get help from early during the semester and identify it weakness and strengths. I believe that by using summative testing, the school and professors are setting the student up for failure. On the past, i have taken classes which had over 10 quizzes included throughout the semester and i did great on them. This proves my point that formative testing works better.
Reference:
Formative-Summative. From Eberly Center:Teaching excellence&Education innovation. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html-
Hi Jessica,
I suffer from an anxiety disorder and I try not to cram a lot of information in at one time, but I am also guilty of the act. I do get treatment or therapy in which I am advised to space my studying time out for subjects. Even though tests, and quizzes make me super nervous I do think the more quizzes I am given will help me in the end for this specific psychology course. I think I would have a better understanding of the course with more “mini” quizzes assigned.
Like stated in one of the replies, usually while studying for test I usually experience the illusion of learning and that only added to my anxiety because I was not able to remember anything for the tests or quizzes. I think that if I try to relate to the material from the textbook I would have a better experience in this specific psychology class because I am pretty overwhelmed.
I am guilty of cramming also, but for a different reason. I had plenty of study time, my problem was I experiencing the “illusion of learning” while I was studying. I have been rereading material and highlighting important points for each of my courses for years, without realizing that I was only making it easier for me to reread and re-highlight each time. According to our book, I have only created an illusion (familiarity effect) that I have learned the material that I have been desperately trying to remember. (Goldstein, Bruce E., Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. pg., 189) As would be expected, I would get D’s, F’s and not A’s because I couldn’t recall a lot of the information while I was taking my tests. Eventually, I started to cram all of my courses study time in right before I took a test. Again, I failed. At this point I gave up, I was certain something was wrong with me, so I sought out someone who I thought could help.
I went to a cognitive psychologist for a couple of months; I was convinced something was wrong with my brain. The psychologist taught me how to slow down, he also had me watch a lecture video that helped me understand. (Lobdell, Marty. Study Less Study Smart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&noredirect=1) It’s about an hour, but it’s really helpful. The psychologist outlined the steps I should take to achieve my goal. The first step was to space out my study sessions, meaning don’t read the whole chapter and extra notes or reviews in the same day and reread it again in the same way. I broke up my reading according to the time I had available to study, so I read 2 or 3 pages per day. Second step was to do the same thing with the other courses I was taking, but mix those reading sessions in with my other classes. Meaning, I was reading 2-3 pages for one course then reading 2-3 pages in another course. He called this “interweaving” different course subjects. The final step was to test and retest myself on the material I had just read. Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is, but it helped. I would write down the key points each time I read and formulate questions. After which I would only answer those questions after I read the material for a different class. At the end of each chapter I would also do the end of the chapter questions for each course. Slowly, but surely it has helped.
References
Goldstein, Bruce E., Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. pg., 189
Lobdell, Marty. Study Less Study Smart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&noredirect=1
I do agree that it might be sacrilegious for a student to ask for more tests, but my wife and research apparently agrees with you. I have a lot of test anxiety, and by a lot I mean mind crushing amounts of it, so for me tests are fraught with high levels of stress. I would much rather be forced to think critically about the material and have to write something on the information I should be learning. I find having to dig into the material enough to write intelligently is extremely beneficial to my ability to understand. I often will use my wife as a sounding board for the ideas I am learning, so that when I am excited by something the course has said or am confused by it, I’ll simply talk her ear off about it. Often in trying to explain it to her I remember some piece of information better, or talk through something that was confusing me.
I do have a Spanish class that uses frequent testing as a means to instruct, in which I take anywhere from five to ten quizzes a week as well as other assignments. Despite the research our textbook quotes I do not find it helpful in memorization or encoding and instead see it as time consuming busy work that adds to my stress level. I think that testing is great for some people but for some the anxiety of the test would do more harm than good, and that being able to parrot information from book to test is not as useful as being able to critically evaluate and think on a subject.