Planning Exams Effective testing requires effective planning. Faculty must simultaneously consider four issues when designing an examination strategy. Testing Frequency Frequent testing improves retention. Students retained twice as much information when given unit quizzes. In a meta-analysis, Crooks reported that a moderate testing frequency was associated with a gain in final exam performance.
Frequent testing has advantages and disadvantages.
It maximizes student and teacher feedback, reduces testing anxiety, allows the instructor to drop one or more poor grades, provides for examinations early in the term, and provides more grades on which to base the final course grade. However, frequent exams also reduce the length of examinations that can reduce test reliability and may take more time to construct and grade. For exercise solving, faculty should inform students how long assigned homework exercises should take to complete. Provide the same time to solve exam questions. When many students do not complete a test, then the test is test measuring both knowledge and speed.