Reflecting on ‘assessment’
2. The variety of approaches to assessment (continued)
Whether your lecturers use on-going assessment approaches or not, it is
always useful to engage in self-assessment
i.e. to ‘test’ yourself as you go along.
It has been shown that a really successful study/learning strategy is
to write an exam question rather than simply answering someone
else’s questions. In order to write a really good question
you must understand the subject, what is important, why, what
angles/perspectives can be taken on it etc. Some lecturers actually run
assessments (which contribute marks) requiring students to write exam
questions or quizzes on different topics, sometimes even getting them
to justify to the rest of the class why theirs are good questions! You
could do this with some fellow students and critique each
other’s questions (and answer them as well!). This
might prove a useful alternative to just learning things off and
reciting them, reading and re-reading material etc. You can always
suggest this to your lecturers and see if they are interested in
getting involved too! If you are using this approach as a
learning tool you should link it to the material in the unit,
‘Exploring
your learning preferences’.
You can
design assignments for yourself in a format which best suits your
learning preference(s) e.g. a question requiring diagrams or mind maps
or an oral presentation.
It is quite likely that a number of lecturers will give you group-based
assignments.
There may also be an element of peer
assessment involved in group projects. To
learn
more about these forms of assessment, see the units under, ‘Working in groups?’
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