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When used properly, frequent low-stakes quizzes are such a powerful learning tool, especially if they cover not only recently learned material but also a variety of review material from the past.
- You get the benefits of retrieval practice, the spacing effect, and interleaving, all merged into one.
- You also pinpoint what material students need more practice on.
- And with a properly calibrated time constraint, you can also measure and support the development of automaticity.
Just make sure that students are able to solve problems successfully in an untimed setting before facing the clock – and after the quiz, make sure to follow up and review anything they missed.
Students can have a positive relationship with quizzes when
- they occur frequently enough to be low-stakes and get students normalized to them,
- they only test students on skills that they’ve previously demonstrated ability to perform in an open-book untimed setting, and
- students get immediate feedback and extra review on any questions they miss.
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