By Allyson Ennis On an average school day, sunlight streams through the windows as you enter a classroom. Taking a seat at your desk, you prepare for the teacher to begin his instruction with a small smile on your face. However that smile soon vanishes when you hear just two words: pop quiz. In today’s schools most students experience this surprise form of testing at some point. It is known to spark fear, as pop quizzes test their abilities on the spot without any chance to study. Pop quizzes may create stress; However they may also be helpful for students to retain material and act as a good learning experience. Therefore it is important for students to receive only a couple of pop quizzes so their stress levels remain at a manageable state as they learn, grow and generally reap the benefits of an occasional quiz. Regardless, if any school-related topic stresses students out, it is a pop quiz. This fear-provoking system of teaching is able to upset many Wilson students, particularly ones in AP or honors classes. On a scale of one to five, five being the most stressful, 54 students chose the three to five mark out of 70 teenagers in regards to these surprise testings. This indicates how distressing students find pop quizzes. A student survey at Wilson has shown that most students who take CP classes hardly receive any pop quizzes, the maximum being two to three per semester for a senior and next to none for other grade leveled students. However those in AP and honors classes tend to receive four to eight pop quizzes per quarter. With or without the use of pop quizzes in one’s classes, many students have agreed to them being stressful in an online survey. Students have explained that due to no warning in advance, they are left with zero time for preparation and are left to rely on their retention skills to pass the quiz. If a student is confused or struggling in a subject, he may not end up doing well on the pop quiz. “They are not fair to students,” Sophomore Lauren Crawford said. “If a student does not understand a topic, they should receive help from a teacher instead of having their grade suffer.” A student at Wilson High School, who preferred anonymity, said, “Personally, pop quizzes are stressful because I don’t get a chance to plan my schedule around the quiz. It gives me anxiety to have something unknown come up and impact my grade overall. The pop quiz may not impact my grade by much, but the feeling of anxiety is still there.” These surprise exams may be fairly easy to those who learn to pick up material quickly, but for slower learners, they may act as a challenge. Students have said that they prefer planned quizzes, where preparation can be taken ahead of time. “It would force us to learn the material if we were given regular quizzes instead,” Jason Zulick, a Senior at Wilson High School, said when questioned, believing pop quizzes do not allow students to study and actually learn material. Pop quizzes may not always be the best way to test a student’s knowledge, as they do create a substantial amount of stress for students. However if used in moderation, they may be appropriate for one’s education. Even raising panic in students, pop quizzes do seem to have a silver lining to them. Students do admit to pop quizzes acting as helpful study guides for later exams, keeping students paying attention, teaching the expectations of the class and letting students know where they are struggling and need to work harder. “Pop quizzes help me to check my understanding with the knowledge I have learned in class,” said David Heinly, a Sophomore. “It also informs the teacher whether or not the students are understanding the information, allowing him to focus on the information students are struggling with.” Teachers also have their valid reasons for providing pop quizzes. “I give my pop quizzes to see if my students are working out of my class,” Wilson High School’s AP Calculus teacher, Mr. Myer, said, known by students to give multiple pop quizzes. “These quizzes can prepare students for future exams by keeping them paying attention in class and helping them to retain information.” Believing his pop quizzes help his students, Mr. Myer usually gives two to three pop quizzes per quarter. “My students usually struggle at first, but scores do get better as they adjust to the quizzes," he added. Research has also indicated that students who are given pop quizzes are more successful. In an article written by Cassandra Willyard called “The Benefits of Pop Quizzes,” an experiment was undertaken by two students from Washington University. This experiment was used to show that those who take pop quizzes develop better ways to memorize material. The results showed that those who took a pop quiz before an exam, rather than those who did not, did three times better. This research proves that pop quizzes can help students retain information, a skill that can be helpful to teenagers in their futures. Used in moderation, pop quizzes can be generally helpful to students at Wilson High School. Even though they may cause stress and anxiety in some students, pop quizzes, given in appropriate amounts, can certainly be helpful to their education. A few quizzes per semester should be, and seems to be, sufficient. As long as students are not overloaded with multiple unplanned quizzes, the outcome of their scores should be positive. If bettering the education of students truly is a goal of Wilson teachers, then they should plan to have several -- but not too many -- pop quizzes to boost the unit exam scores of their students. Photos Courtesy Of: Pixabay.com
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Elena Caputo
Hi! My name is Elena, and I'm a senior at Wilson and one of the Editors of the Editorial section. If you have any questions or ideas or if you want to write, email me at [email protected]! Olivia MonosHello! My name is Olivia and I'm a junior this year, and one of the editors of the Editorial section! I'm really excited to write for the Paw Print again this year!
Archives
December 2019
Categories |