Kevin Watson, at Iowa State U., just sent me a New York Times (Jan.20,2011) article titled “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test“, based on research that appeared last week in Science. The piece 
opens: “Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know. It actually helps learn, and works better than a number of other studying methods”.
It turns out that students who are tested on a passage they read have a 50% improvement in recall than those using other techniques. Even getting an answer wrong had positive recall benefits. Experts call the results in Science striking.
The Times adds, “Testing, of course, is a highly charged issue in education, drawing criticism that too much promotes rote learning, swallows valuable time for learning new things, and causes excessive student anxiety”.
I disagree with this criticism. Not only do I like the idea of testing, I am a firm believer in weekly quizzes and even “pre-tests” assigned to students before each class. In this era of mass distractions available to students sitting in class (e-mail, texting, Solitaire), the one item that helps student focus is gathering the knowledge needed for a test.
By sheer coincidence, Prof. Bill Quain, at Stockton College, sent me the same NYT article the same day. When I asked how he kept the students’ attention, he laughed and said the magic words are “this will be on the test”. Even when he shows a You-Tube clip, he tells the class they will be quizzed on it.
How can we help? It turns out that our MyOMLab assessment system, which you can master in a half-hour, may be the cure. You can give pre-tests, quizzes, tests, all on-line. Each takes only 5 minutes to create and the grading is automated. Email anne.fahlgren@pearson.com for an on-line demo, or ask Anne to send a rep to your office for a personal tutorial.