It’s a unit test day in my AP U.S. History class. I probably should’ve spent the last week going over my notes and watching YouTube study videos, but I didn’t. Instead, I crammed a 5-minute review video in just before I walked into the classroom.
Knowing test corrections give me the cushion of being able to fix every single question I get wrong does the exact opposite of helping me perfect my study habits and prepare for future tests.
Test corrections cause more harm than good, because students take advantage of the basically automatic grade boost instead of actually thinking through and learning from their mistakes.
When the task of a test correction is to merely write down the answer you got incorrect, the actual correct answer and then where you found it — students aren’t learning.
Chances are, students are just looking up the answers and will forget the correct answer in a matter of seconds. They certainly won’t remember the correct answer for the AP test four months later.
A more productive way to prepare students for the exam is to actually give them a reason to study for the unit tests and form their own study habits, rather than relying on test corrections.
Test corrections should be earned, not a matter of a student choosing to complete them or not.
When classes have extra assignments or a certain grade required to be eligible to do test corrections, this is a step in the right direction. Being able to go through your test, correct mistakes and earn credit back should be a reward for students, not an expectation.
However, on the whole, test corrections do absolutely nothing for preparing students for college courses, where having this advantage isn’t even an option.
AP classes are designed to prepare high school students for college courses, and credit hours can be earned depending on the score received on the AP test.
There’s no way students will be prepared for college classes if the answers and easy grades are handed to them.
Imagine a student who spends hours studying, comes up with their own study plans and figures out what works best for them. They ace the unit test.
Then another student who does nothing to study for the test fails. They complete test corrections to lift their grade to a reasonable score to achieve the exact same marks.
It’s easy to tell which student will do better on an AP test: the one who didn’t need test corrections.
Sure, going through the test and seeing which questions were answered incorrectly is useful, but offering over half to full credit back for selecting the incorrect answer defeats the entire purpose of a test.
Tests are designed to show knowledge and understanding of topics on your own, not what the internet says the answer is. Corrections just feel like cheating.
Test corrections harm students' learning and study habits rather than helping them prepare for college classes and AP tests as they should.
I'd love to see teachers offer additional assignments for enhanced learning and grades rather than a free grade boost.
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