Testing Suggestions (in Addition to Being Able to Reset Them)

How can we help?

Regina Litman

September 28, 2018 23:44
Edited

I would like to see the much-desired option to reset a unit test implemented, but I have some other ideas that I think would make the new mastery system better, at least for us adult learners.

While I would love to see the test reset option implemented, it would not be particularly helpful if I’m going along on a 21-question unit test, getting them all correct so far, and then miss, say, question 18. Personally, I do not want to reset the test at that point. I’d rather finish the remaining three and then try my luck from the start.

Someone else has suggested being able to correct an answer when it was clear that the answer was given carelessly. This would help me in the situation I described in the last paragraph because I make a lot of careless answers. But I don’t know how Khan Academy would distinguish between a careless mistake and one in which knowledge was not present.

Here are my other suggestions:

1. Allow one hint before marking the answer wrong. Or if it can be determined how many hints are present, with n being the number of hints, allow n - 1 hints. If there is only one hint, however, using it would cause the answer to be marked wrong. Perhaps a warning can be given in this case, just as a warning is given now when hints are requested.

2. For retakes of a unit test, do not present every mastered skill again. Instead, limit retakes of unit tests to 5 questions or the number of skills still to be mastered, whichever is higher. If there are between 1 and 4 skills still to be mastered, then add in a few mastered skills to bring the number of problems up to 5.

3. Every administration of a unit test should include every skill for which mastery has not yet been achieved. I am currently giving myself a refresher in Basic Geometry. Yesterday, I had to take the test for one of the units 3 or 4 times, despite getting 100% each time, because one skill never came up until the last time. Then I had to take another one a second time for the same reason. That second time through, I made a careless mistake on a skill I had already mastered and thus lost mastery on it, and the skill that didn’t show up earlier still didn’t show up this time! Fortunately, the third time through, I got that skill and also the one I had gotten wrong the 2nd time, didn’t get any others wrong, and finally got my 100% on this skill.

New post

3 comments

Official comment
carol

December 29, 2021 14:18
Comment actions Permalink
As part of our Support Community improvement project, we’re preserving inactive posts that have historical or community value and closing them to new comments. This is one of them!

If this post covers a topic that you’re interested in discussing with the community or requests a feature you’d like to see on Khan Academy, you can try to find an active post about it and add your thoughts (or feel free or create a new post if it doesn’t yet exist in the forum).
Matt Hicks

September 29, 2018 01:52

Edited
1

Comment actions Permalink
I would like to see the testing system:
- more inclined to show students problems of types they have not mastered
- less inclined to rapidly remove mastery status and points that have been earnt
- allow users to pass on questions without being required to attempt so they are not forced to waste time on questions they are not interested in answering or to guess. The test itself could be considered 'incomplete'
- ignore questions where hints are examined, and feedback given for the question so that they are not automatically considered 'wrong' or 'right'. Rather, the test could be considered 'incomplete'.
- be modified so that students can see all of the questions on the test, and be able to address each question in a sequence of their choosing.
- be able to 're-roll' the set of questions being asked, especially if they are yet to start.
This allows the student users to prioritise skills they seek mastery on, to not waste further time on a test that is not going to give the kind of mark the student aspires to, all of which would improve student experience and learning outcomes, and to give feedback on the questions that are being asked without penalty, which improves Khan Academy.
Regina Litman

September 30, 2018 23:42
1

Comment actions Permalink
Matt Hicks, I agree with you on all of your suggestions! I especially like the second one, less inclined to rapidly remove mastery status and points that have been earnt/earned.

Regarding the fourth point, about ignoring questions where hints are examined, would this mean that a new question, presumably testing the same skill, would be added?

The next to the last item is more in keeping with the way in which written tests and quizzes are administrated. There have been many times when I looked over the complete exam and decided which problems/questions to attempt first and which to save until the end. When I took a bunch of computerized exams in the insurance industry between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s from a few different organizations/organisations, there was always the opportunity to mark questions to come back and try again. As part of the process, we couldn't hit the button to end the exam until all of these marks were removed.

Post is closed for comments.

Testing Suggestions (in Addition to Being Able to Reset Them)

Didn't find what you were looking for?

3 comments

Didn't find what you were looking for?