Maths Tutor Online UK
Math Tutor Coach
Click on the image above to take the quiz.
It is a Google form so you will receive immediate feedback after submission.
​
Come back again to take other quizzes. More will be added over the coming weeks. They are all going to give you insigt into what your current state of knowledge is. :) Some will be pleasantly surprised! Make it a family affair. Get everyone to have a go.
In praise of the humble quiz
Quizzes are the perfect tools for monitoring progress. According to the top researchers of formative assessment, testing should be done three times. The Baseline Quiz, Progress Quiz and Understanding Quiz are timed around teaching a new topic. You could read the whole article, which was written by Craig Barton on Medium.
​
Particularly in the UK system, it is rare for the topic to be brand new to students, so the baseline quiz will have value. It is taken three days before the main learning sessions. The progress quiz is taken immediately after, and the understanding quiz is set three weeks after the main learning ends. What the researchers found out will surprise you. It surprised them!
Baseline quiz
Has two functions. It acts as a baseline. The main benefit of this test is to allow the teacher to see where the students are before they start teaching the topic. It shows them where to put the most effort.
​
Secondly, it turns out that students who were set the baseline quiz scored highest in the understanding quiz, This was regardless of how poorly they may have scored in the baseline test. Even those students who were allowed to memorise the questions and answers still did not perform as well as the students who took the baseline test. It was an unexpected bonus! For this to work, the students need immediate feedback so they are not left wondering about their answers.
​
One possible reason for the bonus effect is that the quiz also shows the student where their gaps and weaknesses are so that they have a chance to better prepare themselves for the new material
Progress quiz
This is the test most teachers rely on in school. It turns out not to be a very reliable tool. The short version is that teachers are good at asking questions that elicit the correct responses, and students are good at mimicking teachers.
​
Also, they have a good memory for what they have just been taught. The fact they scored well in the end of topic test might give them a false sense of security and deter them from reviewing the material again.
Understanding quiz
Why is this test taken three weeks after the topic has been taught? When students are tested in school it is usually very soon after a topic has been completed. In addition to that, test preparation involves lots of retrieval practice (memory recall). These results form the basis of reporting back to parents and become the focus of parents, teachers and students alike.
​
Whilst these grades indicate the student's understanding of the topic, they don't relate to how much of the information has been committed to long-term memory, or how long it will stay there. It turns out, that when students focus too much on retrieval, too soon it shortens the length of time they can retain the information. Their knowledge becomes short-lived.
Researchers Robert Bjork and Elizabeth Bjork explain there is a solution for this, happily! If you want to retain your knowledge for the longest time, wait until you begin to forget it before you start trying to recall it. This is the thinking behind the understanding quizzes.
​
In practice, this only works if the student has understood the material. For those who have not grasped the key concepts before the end of the teaching will not benefit. The progress quiz has something to offer here.