However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. —Winston Churchill

Learning from Testing and Test Results^[1]

As discussed in the last section, assessment results provide important data instructors and administrators can use to improve teaching and education, but it’s also important to note that testing benefits students too. Consider the following:^[2]

• You may learn more when you take a test than when you study for it or are just taught the material. For example, if you are asked to learn five formulas for a math test, you will likely remember the three formulas you are actually tested on better than the others.
• When you are tested often it encourages you to study more and procrastinate less.
• The more you retrieve information, as you do during a test, the more likely you are to retain it in the long run.
• Taking a test helps your brain organize knowledge better, and that helps you retrieve the knowledge more efficiently.

In addition to measuring how much you know, testing can actually help you learn, and effectively using the results of a test (even when you don’t do very well) can also enhance your learning in valuable ways.

Learning from Mistakes

Two of the most important messages that students hear from teachers is “Don’t be afraid to fail” and “Learn from your mistakes.” The following TedEd talk explores these familiar ideas. The speaker, Diana Laufenberg, makes the case for why learning through experience, feeling empowered, and embracing failure are all so much more important to students than just going to school to get information. You can download a transcript of the video here.

After you get over the disappointment of making a mistake in the first place, the next step is to try to identify why you made it. That’s the learning opportunity. Below are some tips for following up on and addressing a range of errors that students commonly make on exams and other assessments:

Tips for Test Follow-up^[5]

Reflection and Further Study

Keep in mind this sage advice: “All too often, when students receive a graded exam, they focus on a single feature—the score they earned. Although this focus on ‘the grade’ is understandable, it can lead students to miss out on several learning opportunities that such an assessment can provide.” (Ambrose, et al, 2010) For additional guidance on what to do in the event of less than optimal performance, watch Dr. Stephen Chew’s video I Blew The Exam—Now What?

Chew emphasizes the following points:

What not to do:

• Don’t panic
• Don’t go into denial

What to do:

• Examine how you prepared; be honest with yourself
• Review the exam; compare errors with notes taken
• Talk with your professor
• Examine your study habits
• Develop a plan

Helpful strategies to raise your grade:

• Commit time and effort
• Minimize distractions
• Attend class
• Set realistic goals
• Don’t begin to slide
• Don’t give away points

Don’t be the student who:

• Keeps studying the same way, hoping to improve
• Waits until the end of the term to ask for help
• Skips class to focus on other classes
• Falls further behind waiting to find time to catch up
• Crams at the last minute
• Doesn’t do assignments because they are small or late
• Panics and gives up

If You Question Your Results

Often students feel they’ve received a lower grade than they deserve. This may be especially true for new students not yet used to the higher standards of college. While it can be disappointing to get a low grade, try not to be too hard on yourself or on the instructor. Take a good look at what happened on the test or paper and make sure you know what to do better next time.

If you genuinely believe you should have earned a higher grade, you can talk with your instructor. How you communicate in that conversation, however, is very important. Instructors are used to hearing students complain about grades, and they will likely patiently explain their standards for grading. In general, instructors seldom change grades. Still, it can still be worthwhile to talk with the instructor. You will gain from the experience even if your grade doesn’t change.

Here are guidelines for talking about a grade with an instructor:

• Go over the requirements for the paper or test and the instructor’s comments. Be sure you actually have a reason to evaluate the grade beyond the fact you didn’t do well. Be prepared with specific points you want to discuss.
• Make an appointment with your instructor. For face-to-face classes, avoid trying to talk about your concern before or after class.
• Begin by politely explaining that you thought you did better on the assignment or test (not simply that you think you deserve a better grade) and that you’d like to go over it to better understand the result.
• Allow the instructor to explain his or her comments on the assignment or grading of the test and show appreciation for the explanation. Raise any specific questions or make comments at this time. For example, you might say, “I really thought I was being clear here when I wrote . . .”
• Use good listening skills. Whatever you do, don’t argue!
• Ask what you can do to improve the grade, if possible. Can you rewrite the paper or do any extra-credit work to help make up for a test score? While you are showing that you would like to earn a higher grade in the course, also make it clear you’re willing to put in the effort and you want to learn more.
• If there is no opportunity to improve on this specific project, ask the instructor for advice on what you might do on the next assignment or when preparing for the next test. You may be offered some individual help or receive good study advice, and your instructor will respect your willingness to make the effort.

Keep All Your Work

While it may be tempting to immediately throw away a test or paper once the professor returns it, students should keep all materials from all their courses until after they’ve received their official final grades. Those handouts, charts, readings, tests, and papers can provide valuable review materials for courses with cumulative final exams and important source material for those that require research papers or oral presentations.

Analyzing returned tests and papers can help students identify and correct patterns, thus ensuring they see better results in subsequent learning tasks. Finally, it can be very rewarding for students to look back at their work from earlier in the semester and reflect upon their increasing depth and breadth of knowledge and skills across a variety of disciplines. Using past work to inform future practice is a wise academic choice for all students.