Effects of Warm-Up Testing on Student Learning

Kimberly Mary Levere, Matthew Demers

Abstract


The assessment of student preparedness for entry-level university calculus has been of interest in recent years.  Many institutions have adopted diagnostic tests as a means to assess foundational skills.  We introduce a new testing-style, the Warm-Up Test, which occurs very early in the semester and only tests concepts from prerequisite courses that will be used to develop the new concepts in the course to come.  Despite the large size of the course, Warm-Up Tests are not of a multiple choice format in order that rich feedback may be given by graders.  Warm-Up Tests may also make up part of a student's grade, shifting weight from a high-stakes final exam.  We analyze the predictive ability of this new form of assessment upon student performance on later assessments throughout the course, and we discuss this analysis as well as potential biases and possible future avenues of research.


Keywords


assessment; diagnostic testing; undergraduate mathematics; warm-up test.

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References


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