1. Weekly tests
What are weekly tests? These are tests that are given once in a week to assess children’s understanding of lesson concepts taught during the week.
2003
P R Guruprasad

2. Weekly tests
To identify the `grey’ areas and administer remedial action during the lesson [formative assessment]
Weekly tests are usually administered during the lesson, not after completing it.
Children’s performance in weekly tests helps in identifying difficult areas which are not understood by children. This may be a diagram, description, explanation or even `putting words on paper’.
2003
P R Guruprasad

3. Widely used assessment methods:
Classwork
Homework
Projects
Unit/Monthly tests
To assess pupil’s understanding we use these 4 methods.
2003
P R Guruprasad

4. Classwork 40 minute period is too short to assess many children
Most classrooms in the world are multi ability ones. Handling a multi ability classroom is not easy. Added to this is the number of kids in classrooms in the developing world particularly in regions such as Asia, Africa, South America, E Europe and the Pacific Rim. The problem is compounded in countries like India where the teachers are predominantly females and find it difficult to take kids’ work home due to household chores [though there may be exceptions].
2003
P R Guruprasad

5. Homework Cannot ensure that the work is done by the child
We see many kids doing their homework by simply copying from their classmates. Sometimes homework is done by the parent [as I have myself seen].
2003
P R Guruprasad

6. Projects Identifying it as student’s original work not possible
Not suitable in realizing short term viz.weekly goals
Though projects can be assigned on pedagogically sound principles, they require much planning and implementation with ample scope for prediction and experimentation. Hence they cannot satisfy our short term objective [`Have the kids understood the term `energy’ before I move on to teach `conservation of energy’?]
2003
P R Guruprasad

7. Unit/Monthly tests Only useful for end of the lessons/unit assessment
Unit or monthly tests are given only at the end of any lesson/unit; these tests measure the achievement level at the end of teaching whole lesson/s. Once the lessons have been taught in full, it is usually not easy to get back to square one to re-teach.
2003
P R Guruprasad

8. Remedy?
Weekly tests
After all of what we have seen, weekly tests are the only means to assess pupil understanding during the course of a lesson. Any bottlenecks revealed in the child’s test performance will help the teacher to redesign teaching learning methods `then’ and `there’ before it is too late for remedial action. Weekly tests benefit the child as well as the teacher. One test a week keeps the problems away for ever and ever.
2003
P R Guruprasad