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

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.