Term Examinations in the Homeschool

(This is an article I wrote several years back and since we are doing some examinations this term -- see here for first day) -- I thought it might be a good time to post it. Also, Day Two is up here and the gif versions are here)

Whether Term Exams Can Be of Value in the Homeschool

When I first started homeschooling I gathered the impression that regular examinations were of little value in a homeschool. Among the points I read or heard were the fact that a homeschool mom can keep track of a child's progress as a teacher of a class cannot, so testing is unnecessary; that students tend to study hard for an exam and then forget the material quickly afterwards, so testing is ineffective; that test results don't always reflect how capable the child actually is and how well he knows the material, so testing is inaccurate.

All these things are partially true, but incomplete. It is true that a mom can assess her child's progress informally simply by discussing concepts or seeing how the child does in a subject. But while this kind of assessment is important and a wonderful advantage of the homeschool, it does not serve the same purpose as an exam. An exam takes a wider view and invites the child to display long term retention of ideas and apply them. It trains memory, a sense of discrimination between what is high priority and what is less so, and the ability to use language thoughtfully rather than just parrot the textbook. Lots of students can catch on to a math or grammar concept quickly and apply the learning to an exercise with great success, but then forget it almost immediately if it is not reviewed. Other children catch on more slowly, but retain the information better. Regular tests and exams give each kind of child a chance to show long-term acquirements rather than just quickness or lack of it.

The second point, that exams are an encouragement only to "cram" for a couple of days and then forget the material promptly when the test is over, might be true in some cases but ought not to be the case in a homeschool. In fact, this criticism points to one of the main positive benefits of regular examinations. Examinations are an incentive to the "self-activity" and mastery that are so essential a part of the Ignatian education. When a student is working well in a subject, he should be reviewing continually during the term by studying vocabulary words, thinking about what he is reading, making connections between one area and another, and applying his understanding. If he is doing this, pre-exam review and study should be a consolidation of what he has learned, not a quick strenuous effort to patch up the lacks in his study up till then.

So the fact that regular exams are part of the curriculum makes the student accountable. If I, the teacher, do too much teaching and helping and don’t specifically teach study habits, and the children don't do enough work on their own to internalize what they are learning, this fault tends to show up on examinations. Exams make "study skills" an immediate and practical necessity. A younger child can do oral presentations and recitations during the term, or make visual displays in the form of captioned posters or little illustrated books; an older student, in addition to those things, can also learn to take notes, to make vocabulary cards, to recite quietly or into a tape-recorder in order to really learn material thoroughly. The responsibility for guiding and teaching independent study belongs to the homeschool teacher, but the actual responsibility for making the mental effort belongs to the student.

The third point, that some children don't test well, is also partly true but in a homeschool can be addressed directly according to the reasons for the under-performance. Some children get nervous and stressed in a test situation. Frequent practice by short quizzes, trial runs plus a low-key, supportive environment will probably help over time. Some children have fine motor problems and can't write quickly or fluently. It is possible that these children could test orally or using a word processor, and then work on their fine motor skills over the next term or year. Some children have short attention spans or a habit of guessing wildly. They can be given breaks in between tests or parts of tests, for them to get some exercise or for the mother to make sure that they aren't getting too far off track on their answers merely to "have it over with". All these problems are quite natural for children to have, but they can all be minimized and compensated for, and remedying this kind of difficulty will keep it from becoming a handicap to the child’s academic success in later years.

Finally, in a homeschool, review and exam weeks can be a nice change of pace and a way to clearly see progress as well as discern areas that need to be worked on in the future. I keep an observation log detailing what I notice about my children's learning habits, making the kind of informal assessment I mentioned at the beginning of this article. I also keep a list for brainstorming ideas for changes to make in the future. This is also a good time to fine-tune and rethink the daily schedule, the chore system, or make plans for activities the toddlers can do during school hours. I usually get a little more time to spend organizing the house during these two weeks too.

I hope all this doesn't give you the idea that examinations in a homeschool have to be intense or stressful. If they are prepared for, and modified to the family and students' situation, they should be a challenging but basically positive experience, giving everyone a chance to display what they have learned, and vary the routine of the school year. You could plan a short break from school, a field trip or some kind of celebration to mark the finish to the past term and the prospect of a fresh start in the new one.