Practice Quizzes Matter

Abstract: Practice quizzes are the most common

type of formative assessment. They assess a
students strengths and weaknesses while
providing immediate feedback. A practice quiz
measures a students performance and is
beneficial to a students studying habits.
Keywords:
feedback

formative assessment, quiz, online,

Introduction
Students often fuss about having to complete
practice quizzes. However, teachers assign them for
an academic purpose. Practice quizzes can be used as
formative assessments to enhance a students
learning. They allow both teacher and student to
assess the students understanding of the content.
Given this opportunity, students can examine their
answers and identify which areas of content need
improvement. This technique is useful for studying
and increases examination scores.

Why do teachers give quizzes?

Quizzes are given during the learning process
(Hanna & Dettmer, 2004). Quizzes provide instant
feedback about a students performance. The student
can then assess their own performance and decide
what their strengths and weaknesses are concerning
the content. From there, students can look back over
their answers, re-learn the content needed and test
their performance once again (Butler & Winne,
1995). These formative assessments provide
feedback to not only students but teachers as well.
They provide information teachers can use to shape
their teaching practices in the future. In order to give
feedback to students, teachers must collect data from
the quizzes and determine the students strengths and
weaknesses.
Once teachers examine the scores on a practice
quiz they can evaluate their students and draw
conclusions about their own teaching practices.
Therefore, they can design new ways of improving
their teaching method after recognizing weaknesses
in the assessment (Hanna & Dettmer, 2004). For
example, if many students perform poorly in a
specific area, then the teacher should revisit the
material. This way students can ask questions about
the material to be able to better understand the
content. Asking questions and revisiting material is

the best way to clarify a students understanding of

the information presented (Butler & Winne, 1995).

What do quizzes measure?

Quizzes measure what good performance is.
They define expected standards that students must
reach (Barr & Tagg, 1995; DeCorte, 1996; Nicol
1997). Formative assessments measure progress
made by an individual and a class as a whole. They
measure a teachers method of effectiveness. A
primary focus of a formative assessment is for the
instructor and student to identify areas in need of
improvement. (Hanna & Dettmer, 2004).

Practice quizzes
Quizzes allow students to grow in knowledge
(Barr & Tagg, 1995; DeCorte, 1996; Nicol, 1997).
They also force students to take responsibility for
their learning through a process called studentcentered learning. Instead of the instructor teaching
all of the content, the student is enabled to take
control of their own learning (Lea et al, 2003).
Formative assessments allow students to receive
information about their learning. In doing so, they
provide an opportunity for students to reach their
desired performance because they know what is
expected of them, allowing students to measure their
knowledge and reflect on the knowledge they have
retained. Practice quizzes are typically not graded, but
can be to give students motivation to complete them.
Formative assessments can be given in multiple
forms. Types of formative assessments include inclass activities, homework exercises, journal
reflections, question and answer sessions,
conferences between student and teacher, and student
feedback to their instructor (Hanna & Dettmer 2004).
However, the most common type of formative
assessment are practice quizzes. Typically practice
quizzes are offered online in the form of multiple
choice. Although, if an instructor wants immediate
feedback on their students knowledge of the content,
they can give multiple choice practice quizzes in
class. Today, a popular type of in-class practice quiz
is completed by having students use clickers. Clickers
are interactive devices which can be used to gather
immediate data on an entire classroom with no
restriction on size. After receiving the results,
teachers will be able to see which questions the
students answered correctly or incorrectly. The data
is represented by percentages of correct versus
incorrect answers, illustrating which material was

understood and needs to be revisited (Hanna &

Dettmer, 2004). Socrative, another web program, can
be used to the same effect. Students can download the
Socrative application on their smartphones and
answer multiple choice questions. Schools can save
money by using the Socrative application because
then they do not need to purchase clickers.

Benefits on studying and exam scores

Technology is prominent today and educators are
encouraged to increasingly integrate the use of it into
their classroom. Using the internet as a tool to
supplement course material has the potential to guide
learning outside of the classroom. Students using
online formative assessments will receive quick
feedback and information (Forsyth & Archer, 1997).
Online practice quizzes also offer extra study material
that promotes self-learning. Teachers offering online
quizzes will be able to present course material not
shown in class, giving students the opportunity to
learn outside of the classroom (Brooks, 1997).
However, students need face to face instruction as
well. Lectures and notes are beneficial to students
learning by having the information presented orally to
them. Also, lecture notes are useful in learning missed
material that a student performed poorly on in the
practice quiz. Printed or written documents are easier
to read which benefits students because they have
limited time to study (Martin & Platt, 2001). Having
access to both lecture notes and online practice
quizzes simultaneously is more efficient than having
one or the other. Remember, practice quizzes are a
supplement to learning and should not be the only
method depended upon.
In a correlational approach to research, a college
psychology class was given the option to make use of
internet practice quizzes. The professors did not
lecture on the textbook material or help the students
prepare for the unit exams. However, they informed
their students that practice quizzes were available
online. The researchers expected students to make use
of the online practice quizzes to help them in their
studies. In each section, the students had the
opportunity to take multiple-choice practice quizzes
consisting of ten questions for each of the twenty-six
chapters in the textbook. These online practice
quizzes were designed to provide feedback to the
students on understanding of the material. At the
beginning of the course, the students were told to read
each chapter thoroughly, take the quiz, review their
answers and study once more. The practice quizzes
also referred to specific sections in the textbook, so
students knew exactly where to look for clarifications.
On exam day, the questions for the test were drawn
from several of the practice quizzes. Depending on
how many practice quizzes a student took, they could
have previously studied for all of the questions on the
unit exam.

In conclusion, the researchers found that taking

practice quizzes correlated positively with students
test performance. Students who scored higher on the
practice quizzes scored higher on unit exams because
they were well prepared for the exam. They also
found that more students began taking advantage of
the practice quizzes after the first exam (Brothen &
Wombach, 2000).
Although practice quizzes are good tools for
students to learn, they must be given incentive by
their instructors to complete them. Most students will
not voluntarily complete a practice quiz for several
reasons. Either quizzes are too time consuming or the
students do not receive credit for completing them.
Even though this research was completed on college
students, the same principles can be applied to high
school students. Teachers should assign practice
quizzes and give credit to students who complete
them. Students will then be awarded for taking the
extra time to study which will benefit both their exam
scores and overall grade in the class. Also, students
will know what will be expected of them on an exam,
and they will be better prepared. Not only will this
studying technique benefit a student in their high
school career, but it will set good studying habits for
college.
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