Introduction

• 1 What is your students’ attitude towards exams?

• 2 How do you think your students’ performance in exams could be improved?

• 3 What would be the obstacles to making these changes?

Exams are a continuous process

It's important that institutions see exams as a core part of the whole educational process. They should not be viewed as one-off events, but as part of a much bigger picture. This chapter thinks about exams from three different perspectives: how you can prepare students before exams, what you can do during exams to make the experience better, and what you can do afterwards.

Before exams

Familiarizing students with exam tasks

Students need to know what to expect in an exam, especially if it is high stakes. Knowing the type and style of tasks can help reduce anxiety and stress. If possible, share previous exam papers or tasks with the students. Another good technique is to get them to predict the kind of questions which might come. Engaging with the tasks in this critical way can result in students performing better.

Planning for the other students

During exam periods (especially for formal summative exams), it is common for the whole institution to be closed except for those doing the exams. Whilst the underlying reason for this makes sense (i.e. to minimize disruptions), the majority of students miss out on learning during this time. In situations where educational opportunities are very limited, the available time for learning has to be maximized.