At Walnut School, we stress a lot on periodic exams. This takes away the “stress” associated with examinations, as our students are well versed with the format, the portion, as well as the content that they are going to be tested on. The format of our exams keeps varying to break the monotony of formats. This keeps the students engaged and keeps their mind nimble.
Board Exams are not a problem due to this approach.
We have multiple practice tests, followed by the unit tests for each subject in every unit of the academic year. But that is not “frequent” enough for us!
In addition to these, we also have:
- Test Bytes: These are objective questions that students take after each chapter on Walmiki, our e-learning platform
- Try A Tests: For grade 6 and beyond, we have written tests after each chapter for our core subjects.
Try A Tests
- Written descriptive tests which are conducted after each chapter
- 15 marks
- 30 minutes
- Conducted in school hours
- Compulsory
- Have a minimum passing percentage
- Have 4 sets of EACH chapter to so that there is no copying
Applicability
- All subjects and classes do not have “Try-A-Test”s
- Click on this link to find out the applicability for each subject and class
Benefits of Try A Tests
- Build regular studying habits
- Helps teachers keep track of academic progress of each student
- Reduces stress of studying for larger portion tests
- Keeps students on their toes
While teachers take a lot of effort to conduct these tests, there are some problems which exist on the ground:
- Students try and game this system by being absent on the Try A Test days
- Students who are present are not too serious about studying regularly
To take care of these problems, the planning team came up with some creative ideas.
For students who are present and take the test
For students who are absent and take the test
- If they PASS with 50% marks, then there is no problem
- If they FAIL to achieve the passing percentage:
- They get to re-attempt the SAME paper, BUT now with 80% passing marks
- If they get the passing percentage in the second shot, great!
- If not, they get to re-attempt the paper again and again till they achieve the higher passing percentage
- Any guesses where the time to take these re-attempts comes from? You guessed it right: From their beloved sports and activities periods 😈
- We estimate that students will get the drift of what is happening by the second or the third Try A Test, and will fall in line 🙂
For students who are absent and take the test
- We have a special treat for them! 😈
- They get to solve TWO sets of Try A Tests! Why?!
- Because well, they were absent
- Secondly, questions have now been leaked!
- There’s more:
- Passing percentage for these absent students is now 80% for both papers
- Students have to keep retaking the test till they pass.
- Again, any guesses where the time to take these re-attempts comes from? You guessed it right: From their beloved sports and activities periods 😈
The students sit next to teachers when they attempt Try A Tests again (and again, and again…).
The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that our students get serious about studies. The content is not getting easier as they progress through their classes, and the learning gap would only widen if they didn’t take studies seriously.
Here is a nice flowchart which will explain what we have explained above:
At Walnut school, we believe in providing our students with a comprehensive and rigorous examination system that prepares them for any academic challenge from an early age. Starting from Std. 1, our examination system encompasses diverse learning aspects, including practice tests, test bytes, orals, and more. We place great importance on regular evaluations, providing invaluable feedback to both students and parents. You can read more about our meticulously conducted primary and secondary examinations here.
