Why are quizzes hard for students?

Why are quizzes hard for students?

Quizzes are an essential part of the learning process since they help us see if students have acquired certain knowledge, and if they have some deficiencies in learning. They are also important because they give teachers parameters to take into consideration for other classes. In many cases, teachers find quizzes very easy to do, but they never think if students are going to understand or do a good job when doing it. Ninety percent of students find all quizzes difficult; even though, they have studied for them. I consider there are three main reasons why quiz takers find them difficult. If we are creating tests, we have to think about the order of the items. We have to include things students have studied in our classes. Finally, we have to create a variety of parts so that students can feel comfortable by doing the quiz.

First, the order of the items is really important. There are some teachers who don’t take enough time for creating the quizzes and the order of the items is not so appropriate. Students sometimes find it difficult to understand. Besides that, instructions are not well explained and students get lost when reading them.

Secondly, the topics that are being evaluated are not the ones studied in class. Many teachers are used to include things students haven’t studied in class just for making them fail. I believe that this is not appropriate since the goal of testing is to measure if students have acquired knowledge.

Finally, many students fail quizzes and find them difficult because there is not a variety of activities presented. Sometimes students have a hard time because the quizzes just include open questions in which they have to write the exact concept.  If teachers do that, students won’t be able to explore their abilities. Some researchers say that those exams are not appropriate for students since they are not fair. On the other hand, teachers must create quizzes that contain at least four different parts. If a quiz has more than three parts, students are going to have the opportunity to put in to practice all the knowledge acquired in the classes.

Quizzes are really important for the learning process, but they can be also a frustration for students because these quizzes don’t show all characteristics of a good quiz. If quizzes are well organized with clear instruction, students won’t find them difficult unless they don’t study.