Formal assessments are typically used for certification or grading purposes. Informal assessments are typically conducted by lecturers and tutors during students' normal activities. Formative assessment is assessment conducted during a course to apprise students' learning progress, to identify instructional objectives which have not been obtained, and to ascertain whether students have adequate prior knowledge to cope with subsequent stages of a particular learning sequence. Summative assessment is typically conducted at the end of a course or unit. It is used mainly to determine levels of final achievement in a particular subject area as well as for certification purposes.
Diagnostic assessment aims at locating strengths and weaknesses in students' performance.
Norm-referenced assessment concerns the use of tests and techniques that allow the interpretation of students' performance levels in terms of their relative position in the group. Due to increasing number of students and diminishing standards in education, it is very important not to use norm-referenced assessment in professional degree courses. In continuous assessment, students' performance is assessed over a number of occasions and in a variety of situations through the course, thus providing a more representative view of student capabilities than is available from assessment on one single occasion at the end of the course. In final assessment, students' achievements are measured once at the end of the term. Product assessment concentrates on the appraisal of learning outcomes achieved by students, including certification whether the course requirements and standards have been met.