Fair & Stress-Free Student Assessment

Quizzes and exams are the best part of the school experience.

Said no one ever.

They can be quite memorable, however. The stress of preparing for the test, the stress of taking the test, and the stress of waiting days or weeks for the results.

Oh, and the stress that comes with receiving a poor result — much of which is often caused by the pressure of high-stakes testing that many are ill-equipped to manage.

Fun times.

I recently wrote about the problem with fear-based education .

Quizzes and exams feed that fear.

What's even worse is that most tests are very poor at measuring the success of learning.

I did well in school because I memorized everything. Text, dates, and mathematical patterns for formulas. Most of which I quickly forgot soon after the test.

The academics were boring and this was the easiest way to game the system.

This strategy worked for me through K-12 and 6 years in university studying engineering and math.

Most people don't have the capacity to memorize like I did, but it serves as one example of how conventional testing does not work.

And, interestingly, it wasn't until after I left school that I realized I love to learn.

Education is more than just gaining knowledge — it's about applying knowledge, demonstrating skill, and changing behavior.

To measure and assess the above requires new ways of testing.

Testing by doing.

Much like learning by doing — through experiential learning, problem-based learning, quests, and other such approaches.

All of this is now possible and has been for a very long time now.

I like to call this authentic assessment — in contrast to the old-school pseudo assessments.

When done well, in addition to authenticity, this approach also offers two big benefits — automation and real-time results.

This means the results are continually available to the student and instructor.

There's no guessing or waiting. The student has direct knowledge and control of the outcome and can adjust their level of effort as needed in real-time, without pressure.

And the instructor does not have to spend much time on assessment — or having to defend the results. This saves hours of effort that can now be used to coach students to be successful — or to personally relax and recharge.

It's a win-win for everyone in every way.

Next Steps

Consider how you can change up your assessment methodologies.

Move away from fear-based education .

If you want to see real examples in action, check out this article and video demonstration: Assessment Strategies for Educational Games and Simulations

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I'm Mathew Georghiou and I write about how games are transforming education and learning. I also share my experience as an entrepreneur inventing products and designing educational resources used by millions around the world. More about me at?Georghiou.com