Just week 2 of term 3 and so many things had happened. From common tests to CCA, external validation and back to class tests. All these things set me thinking about our students a bit more than I used to, and learned a lot more about our students, especially the year 3s. This is also the first time I spent considerable amount of time lecturing students for things that they have done and things that they have not done.

There were so many complains, worries, frustrations about the class tests but yet everybody did well and no one failed this time round. There were so much optimism, celebrations and smiles about the common tests but almost half couldn't even pass. Problem is, those who did well will not be satisfied, those who did badly may not be ready to face it.

Maybe the gifted education branch is right. If we don't attach marks/grades to all the assignments and tests, students could be more focus on the one important thing that they are suppose to do, learn. Then they won't target 90% for their tests, then they won't sulk when they fail, all they have to do is to improve next time, and not to make the same mistakes again. Of course, learning for the sake of learning, that's too idealistic. At the end of the day, we still have to decide who gets promoted and send a report card home.

I don't like tests.

I don't like tests that let students score more than 90%. That will give them the false image that they are very good and there is little room for improvement.

I don't like tests that let students score less than 80%. Because I will hear 101 reasons why they deserve more marks. Because I will hear 101 excuses why they couldn't do better.

I hope I like tests that let students score less than 50%. I hope that they will look beyond the marks, look beyond the pass, look beyond the grades and focus on their learning. I hope they will learn from their inadequacies, their weakness and their mistakes.

But I know I don't like tests that let students score less than 50%, the moment I hear them ask about moderation.

...

I remember during my 2nd semester in NIE, we have a module on assessments in Physics and the lecturer Prof Ho Boon Tiong let us debate on why have exams/tests. There were many answers. The typical answers like "to rank students, "to evaluate teacher's performance", "for answering to parents", "for promotions", "for their certificates", "for future empolyers", "ensure students revise" etc. I got fed up with the answers and contributed my thoughts