Are you doing the right thing when you receive your test or exam results? Students are always receiving their assessment results every no and then. But they may not really know what to do with the numbers or grading. I have observe  some patterns which I do not think would help students improve.

Scenario 1

Students would be emotional. They would be very happy as they got a really good grade. They would also be very happy when then scrape through with a minimum pass. The first thing that comes to their mind is they would not be scolded by parents. Second thing that comes to their mind is that they can relax a bit.

Scenario 2

Students would be finding out how their friends fare. They would be collecting market sentiments. They would celebrate with the good results, they would console those who did badly. They are empathetic and kind young adults.

3 thoughts to have…

The result is a number or a grade. It is already written black and white. There is nothing else to change. It already happened. They key is what next.

Every time, I returned the result I gave students 5 to 10 minutes to celebrate or to cry. I need to let them get over their emotion. This is when I advise them to review what the result means to them. I want to breakdown their learning into 3 portion to think about.

1st thought Recall the lesson

I want the students to try to recall the lesson that I taught in class where the topics of test or exam came from. I want their brain synapses to connect and bring in some image or words or connection of that particular lesson that I taught. If they cannot recall anything, it is either my lesson is too boring or they did not focus in class. Next I want them to take out any form of notes they took down about the lesson that I taught. Human brain are wonderful storage but it also needs some scaffold to help it remembers. When students do not recall lesson and they do not take down notes to help them remember, they are destined to fail.

2nd thought Understand the lesson

Do you understand the lesson? Students need to start asking if they understand what the teacher taught in class. They kept them mouth shut to act like they understood. Fearing that teachers scold them or worried that friends would laugh at their stupid questions. There is nothing to fear except fear itself. Fear of losing face or look stupid impede one’s improvement. The real stupidity occurs when you do not clarify what you do not know.

3rd thought Analyse the question

During the assessment, do you understand the requirement of the questions and test? The command words used by the assessor gives you clue to the requirement of the answer. The brain would ignore such clues when it is overwhelmed by the stress of assessment and cannot analyse effectively.