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Take Tests
How often should I take tests?
I would suggest that a reasonable amount of tests would be one test roughly every four weeks per subject. You could stretch this out as you see fit, but I think a bare minimum would be six tests in a given subject per academic year.
In college, theschool year will be split into semesters. In a given class, in a single semester, you will be hard pressed to find a class that does not have at least three tests during that semester. Just take the tests and get used to them, even if you don’t base your entire grade on your test-taking prowess. It is imperative that you get comfortable taking a quantity of tests.
How should the tests be scheduled?
Would it be fair to put all the tests together in the same week, every week of theschool year? Not quite, however, it would not be realistic to perfectly stagger the tests so that you would never have more than one or two in the same week.
In college, instructors will usually go for a couple weeks at the start of a semester, and then give you the first test. Generally all the instructors will start giving out tests around week three or four and as early as week two. What does this mean? It means you are going to possibly have tests in all your classes within a week of each other. You will probably encounter weeks in which all your instructors have scheduled tests at the same time. This is not to make things hard for you, it is just that is the pace of learning that most instructors will use. So it might not be a bad idea for you to get used to studying for and taking multiple tests at the same time.
Use a separate answer sheet
In order to expedite the process of grading papers, your professors will most likely use form sheets that you will fill out with a #2 pencil so that they can run the answer sheets through a grading machine. This saves them a ton of time, however, it is a little awkward at first to fill in your answers on a completely different sheet.
By using a separate answer sheet wherein you fill in bubbles according to multiple-choice questions, you are getting used to using such a form. In fact, there are even minor test taking strategies revolving around the most effective way to transfer your answers from the test paper to the answer sheet.
For instance, I find it easier to circle or mark all the answers on the test paper first, and then I go down and fill in all the answer bubbles at one time on the answer sheet. This was the recommended process by a history professor I had. |
