Day 62

Although I shared a few of the student responses to the test, there were so many great responses I wanted to share more.

Student Response #1

Before the test I was nervous because I felt I hadn’t studied enough for what was going to be on the test. I knew most of the vocabulary and what the different types of diffusion were, but was not 100% certain about the traits of all of the different religions. Although during the test I found out that to me it seemed a lot easier than I thought. It still was not a very easy test but compared to what I thought it was going to be it wasn’t as bad. Knowing the hearths of the religions and different types of diffusion really helped me a lot and make some educated guesses if I wasn’t sure on an answer. Unlike the last practice test I learned not to pick answers if they had vocabulary that we had not learned, which I think helped me get a couple more questions right. Overall it wasn’t as bad as I made it up to be and I think I did pretty well on it.

Student Response #2

Going into the Unit 3 test, I felt pretty confident in my knowledge of the unit. I pay attention during lectures and I’ve understood most of the concepts we’ve learned relatively easily. I’ve also been studying throughout the days leading up to both the FRQ and the multiple-choice section. I memorized all of the vocabulary terms and definitions on the quizlet made by a classmate, so I expected the test to be a breeze. The culture part of the test wasn’t that difficult for me, because that was mainly what we focused on reviewing in class and what I studied individually. However, when I got a question to answer on language, I was completely stumped. I totally forgot that that was even part of the unit since we mainly focused on culture and religions, and that also means that I didn’t study anything relating to language, and the only language term on the quizlet was Lingua Franca. Luckily for me, there were only a few questions on language, and I relied on context clues and the process of elimination to help me answer them. Overall, I think I did good on this Unit Assessment.

For some of this test I feel it is a gotcha exam. There is so much content in this unit, it’s hard to pin point the correct answer. At the same time, the students rocked the free response question. Their stress levels were lower for that one, too. When testing I need to create a better environment and leading up to the exam ensure that the students are more confident with what they know. I do a few things before the test to help that, but with the sheer amount of objectives for each unit it’s hard for me to go over each objective iwth each student in a manner that will make them feel confortable with every answer. Also, an AP test is different than their other tests. Getting just over a 50% is considered passing. It takes a lot of reframing in the beginning part of the year.