Making progress: Helping students to know where they are going and where they have been with the use of progress testing: Design & Implementation

Student assessments are recognised as key drivers of learning, although consequences linked to student performance, such as academic progress and GPA’s raise a question of whether some assessment design provides more motivational ‘stick’ than ‘carrot’. Written examinations have long been a standard of university teaching, despite ongoing debates about their efficacy with literature critical of the student experiences, test preparation tactics, retention of knowledge post the test, as well as stress and anxiety linked to the event. Additionally poor test design can leave students questioning an assessment’s value or relevance. Furthermore the growing debate regarding
the use of summative, formative or blended assessment practices, underscores much current assessment discussion.
For over 30 years, progress tests have been used in medical education as a tool to link formative and summative assessment and to address concerns about more traditional assessment methods. Central to the approach is a single exam, comprised of comprehensive content reflecting expected graduate knowledge
from a teaching program. Commonly, the test is administered at intervals throughout the entire study program, from start to finish, reminding students of the goals of the course, while also enabling incremental performance measurements.