In Malaysia, every student must take trial exams, especially the UPSR, PT3 and SPM students, as they are the crucial examinations. In a few schools, they even conducted multiple trial exams prepared for their students to ensure that their students pass the exams with flying colours.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the students, there are sighs. To them, trial exams are tiring. They have already done many exercises and assessments in the classroom, yet they still have to do trial exams. Doesn’t it add pressure to the students? They might get stressed out.
In this article, we will find out whether it is true that trial exams can help improve students’ scores in the real examination? Or is it the opposite as there are possibilities that too many exams might get them stressed out that made their focus stirred?
This finding is based on 150 Pandai students’ trial exam scores and comparing them with their scores in the real examination. These students answered the trial exam sets in Pandai prior to the real exams such as UPSRx and PT3x, which are the exams conducted by Pandai. The scores of another 150 Pandai students who took the actual exam without taking the trial exam are also being used in this finding. Both results are displayed in the bar chart below.
The graph shows the average score of 150 students with trial exam preparation and 150 without trial exam preparation in the trial exam and real examination.
Based on the graph of students with trial exam preparation, the average score obtained in the trial exam is 51.2%, which is grade C and the average score in the real examination is 88.9%, which is grade A. It shows an increment of 37.7% in the score. The students ended their school happily by achieving an excellent grade
Next, the other graph shows no value for trial exam score as these students did not undertake the trial exam. In the real examination, the students manage to get an average score of 70.1%, which is grade B. Hmm, it is unlikely that students are satisfied with obtaining grade B, especially when it is already near C.
For better illustration, let us see the line graph in figure 3 below.
The line graph shows a summarized version of the bar graphs. From the chart, we can clearly see the difference in the real examinations score of both groups. The students who took the trial exam preparation had a better score in the actual examination than those who took the actual exam without trial exam preparation. The difference of 18.8 percentage points in the real examination score between the two groups showed that trial exams impacted the students’ performance in real examinations.
Thus, with these results, we can conclude that trial exams do help improve students’ grades.
Before we end this discussion, here is some advice. The trial exam is like a final rehearsal before the big show. Your test results are powerful indicators of how you can perform the final examinations, as they are often less than three months from the actual examinations. Defining your performance for each subject will allow you to prepare your final examinations for a better and more effective study plan. Don’t get upset if you haven’t scored well! At least now you know which topics you are weak at, and it enables you to concentrate more on those specific topics. You still have time to resolve and learn from your mistakes. Well, good work if you scored! You now generally know what you can do for these subjects to maintain or even improve.
Last but not least, Gosling, a professor from the University of Texas, said, “Repeated testing is a powerful practice that directly enhances learning and thinking skills, and it can be especially helpful to students who start off with a weaker academic background.”
So now you know why your school loves conducting a lot of assessments and exams. It’s none other for the success of their beloved students.