SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
PART 5
A PHILOSOPHY OF TESTING
Testing accomplishes four important functions: (1) Testing
provides a uniform way of evaluating all students
according to consistent standards within a given class.
(2) Testing provides students with a strong motive for
studying regularly and carefully. (3) Testing provides
1. The virtues of frequent testing. Students experience
anxiety whenever they are tested, and the degree of anxiety
is directly proportional to the importance of the test.
Consequently, giving only one or two tests greatly increases
2. The virtues of testing forgiveness. Dropping one
regular test is a realistic and equitable way of dealing with
the facts of student life. Students get behind, fall ill, have
family crises, and so forth. Dropping one test for everybody
3. The virtues of a mandatory, comprehensive final.
Some professors worry that dropping a test will allow
students to avoid learning or being evaluated on a
significant portion of course material. This is not a concern
4. The often-overlooked virtues of quizzes. As simplistic
as it seems, simply calling an evaluative instrument a
quiz can improve student performance by reducing anxiety.
(Of course, this will not work with, say, a 300-Question
Mandatory Comprehensive Quiz. ) Quizzes can range from
five or ten objective questions to one or two simple, short-
answer questions such as Characterize stoicism in 25
words or less, State the Cogito, or What is entelechy?
Index cards work well for short-answer quizzes. They keep
answers short; they test comprehension and language skill;
5. The virtues of returning graded tests and quizzes
quickly. Students rightly complain when tests are not
returned at all or when they are returned weeks after they
were given. In order to learn from tests, students need to
6. The virtues of mixed tests. It is fashionable at some
colleges to criticize objective (machine-scored) tests as
high-schoolish and trivial. I agree that such tests are not
sufficient testing instruments for philosophy classes, but I
think they can be useful, perhaps even important.
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7. The virtues of study guides for essay questions. One
of the most effective ways to improve student interest and
performance is to distribute study guides for essay tests.
Typically, these consist of carefully framed essay questions
8. The virtues of take-home essays. One way to make
sure that students develop more sophisticated writing skills
is to give take-home essay questions that require at least
500- to 750-word answers. You can use modifications of the
SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
If you set strict standards for two or three longer take-home
essays (3 4 pages, typed, and so forth), essays can be a
viable substitute for a term paper. Requiring one or two
polished essays gives students the opportunity to improve
To repeat a point made earlier, at the freshman level, it is
sometimes better to require more frequent, smaller, less
stressful (but rigorous) assignments than a few major ones.
Two (or more) clearly focused essay topics give students
similar but different writing experiences. They can learn
9. The virtues of using How to Get the Most Out of
Philosophy, 7e to help your students do their best. The
test-taking and study skills information in this engaging
little book should be useful to most introductory students.
Taking part of a class period a week or so before the first