Entrance Exams
These exams are a telltale sign of many learning styles and shortcomings.
I too would like to know more about this.
I certainly agree,identifing certain students early on is good, it will enable instructors to give extra attention to those who need more help to learn.
That's a very good idea Phillip. It avoids having your students "tune-out" when they already know the concepts. Of course the real challenge is teaching to a class that has varied levels of knowledge and abilities!
I have used an "entrance exam" as a pretest for student knowledge to know where they are and how I can present the information I need to. I need to know how basic I need to be, or if I've got students that already have a good handle on the subject matter, I can go a bit more advanced from the start.
I agree with you, Hans. We have to place students into English levels for ESOL. Our placement test is a version of an entrance exam. It is a good start at placement, but we need a few weeks' time with each student to assess whether that initial placement based on one test was correct. It also wastes a lot of student time if the initial placement was incorrect; thus it is not fair to the student. However, it is a necessary administrative tool to create homogeneous groupings.
these exams should be more subject related and more accessible to all instructors so we can identify possible problems before they arise.
As most entrance exams are written; beyond reading comprehension skills and a bare min knowledge of the subject, what are the real values?
I wish we had access to the assessment of those exams. It would help us to focus on some issues before they become problems.
Effectiveness of entrance exams can be hard to track. Did the student not pass because of regional differences?
