On Testing Testing motivates students, provides them feedback throughout the term, and helps determine their final grades. Testing also provides timely feedback to instructors to help them improve their classroom teaching. We can classify examinations along three dimensions. The first dimension highlights the educational philosophy underlying the exam. The second dimension reflects the exam's purpose.
Tests can be diagnostic, formative, or summative.
The third dimension describes the exam's format. The first distinction is the exam's ultimate purpose. Most tests in college classrooms are norm-based. In criterion-based tests, faculty compare students to an internally or externally developed standard. Students either achieve or fail to achieve the standard.