Alice Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Ds is in 7th grade and doing AOPS Algebra. He loves it and it's working well for him. For about the first 5 chapters I gave him tests that I made at the end of each chapter. He did well on the tests for the most part, although he did poorly on the chapter 5 test all due to careless mistakes. But he's getting the overall concepts. When he did Chapter 6 he got every review problem at the end of the chapter correct. So it seemed silly to me to give him a test at that point as he clearly understood the concepts. Chapter 7 was similar, I think he missed a few review problems but when we went back over them he quickly realized his mistakes. At this point I don't really se the point of doing a separate test at the end of each chapter, other than to have the experience of doing a test. But since it ends up being the same experience as doing the review problems it feels redundant. He's 7th grade so I figure on his eventual transcript I will just put something about Algebra being completed prior to high school but the grade isn't going to count anyway for high school so I'm not sure he really needs a final grade. I'm fine with that. I guess I'm just trying to make sure there isn't some skill or experience that I'm leaving out by not giving him tests. I am thinking about giving him a year-end test to make sure he retains the concepts from earlier chapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 At this stage in the game, I don't feel the tests are very important. I take the time to be available during math time, supervise them working through trouble spots and checking over their completed work (almost) every day. If there is a test included in the text then I give it because we don't skip problem sets and the test is just a problem set to us. But I wouldn't make up a chapter test for each chapter unless I felt there was a benefit to be gained by doing so. If you really want to check retention and know which skills to review, then create a test to follow every nth chapter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 If you are the one grading his work, there is no point in chapter tests. An end of course test would work. I just use any old SAT or ACT test for my kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) I give a comprehensive final exam at the end of the year, because for math mastery, it is not just sufficient to have mastered the most recent chapter, but also to retain the most important concepts in the long term. I find chapter tests useless since I know from daily work that my homeschooled student understands the material. It is long term comprehensive mastery that ultimately is what matters. Edited February 2, 2016 by regentrude 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) I think it is always important to have regular diagnostics throughout. It's one thing to "get" the "concept" but if you can't answer 10 questions in an hour, then what does that even mean, you know? As long as you have evidence that the student can answer 75% (passing) of questions without the book within a reasonable timeframe, then I think that is fine. Whether you choose to call that a test or a diagnostic is up to you. If your regular lessons involve the student speeding through the homework under your supervision, without her looking at the book for instructions, then that can suffice as a diagnostic. Edited February 2, 2016 by Tsuga 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 What purposes do you have for a test/grade? Are you wanting to give your child feedback on their progress? Are you trying to determine if the material has been mastered? If you want to give your kid feedback then I think regular quizzes are more useful than just a couple of tests. They don't have to be after every chapter. You can have mixed review of previous topics after the current Chapter Review and Challenge Problems. If you are wondering if the material has been mastered and retained at year's end before moving on then an assessment would be one way to find out. Has he been working in Alcumus? He could go and get all the Intro to Alg topics into the green after he's finished with the course, as a cumulative review before an exam. As far as test taking skills I do think that having practice taking tests is good. Test taking is a skill. The more skilled and comfortable you are with it the better you will do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 We also used AoPS. I used tests from the Dolciani and Foerster books as exams. I will not be putting a grade for seventh grade algebra on the high school transcript, either. But we do have to keep some records of work in our state, and I thought it would be a good idea to show mastery. I also thought it would be good to have some tests if we decided to enroll in school, as schools often want grades and samples of work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 What purposes do you have for a test/grade? Are you wanting to give your child feedback on their progress? Are you trying to determine if the material has been mastered? If you want to give your kid feedback then I think regular quizzes are more useful than just a couple of tests. They don't have to be after every chapter. You can have mixed review of previous topics after the current Chapter Review and Challenge Problems. If you are wondering if the material has been mastered and retained at year's end before moving on then an assessment would be one way to find out. Has he been working in Alcumus? He could go and get all the Intro to Alg topics into the green after he's finished with the course, as a cumulative review before an exam. As far as test taking skills I do think that having practice taking tests is good. Test taking is a skill. The more skilled and comfortable you are with it the better you will do. I think this is what I am trying to figure out. Thanks for all the input from everyone, it's helped me to think this through. I think that I thought of doing tests because it seemed like a skill he should learn. But as we went on it seemed like it wasn't really developing a skill since the process was so similar to the review problems at the end. He has done some standardized tests and did very well, I think he is probably a good test taker like me. The kind of skills you need for that are things he is good at. He is working through Alcumus. He had been working through the PreAlgebra topics as a review and is now in the Algebra topics. I like the idea of giving him a more cumulative test to make sure about retention. I think that will be a better idea of mastery and of whether or not he has retained the material. I can see that he is learning it each chapter and I think that has been why the chapter tests have seemed kind of redundant to me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I like the idea of giving him a more cumulative test to make sure about retention. I think that will be a better idea of mastery and of whether or not he has retained the material. I can see that he is learning it each chapter and I think that has been why the chapter tests have seemed kind of redundant to me. This. Chapter Tests merely get kids used to testing in general and can give a teacher (esp of many students) an idea of where each student is at in their knowledge. They are NOT good at figuring out if a student has truly mastered anything or is merely remembering it well (memorizing what to do). Cumulative tests given now and then (with questions mixed about rather than sequential as learned), esp with little study time, will give you an idea about how much math is truly known - how much foundation is there. Why little study time? Because when one knows something - truly knows it - they don't need to review much or study a lot. They should be able to do the test on any given day at any hour. That's when you know the foundation from Alg 1 is truly there. They know what they are doing. Alg 1 foundation should be solid before progressing on to any other math. It doesn't matter which grade level we're talking about. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 My kids go from home school to brick and mortar school at 9th grade. I did not give any tests in elementary school but I do start in 7th grade. I used to teach high school math, so I make up tests similar to how I did back in my teaching days. We use Singapore math and the question bank books they used to have with the DM series actually get pretty challenging. It really tests where you can go with the concepts, not just can you parrot back the algorithms you were shown. That's what I would say I experienced in college, so I think it's worthwhile to expose kids to that type of testing. Of course it's relatively risk-free at this stage of the game. I mark errors and go through the tests with the girls, but I don't put letter grades on them. Concepts they don't master will be practiced some more and will turn up on future tests. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 We treat the end of chapter review as a test. I don't help at all, and he gets a percentage when its done. I don't log it anywhere since he's in 4th I don't really care about tests now, but all the same it's treated as a test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 We treat the end of chapter review as a test. I don't help at all, and he gets a percentage when its done. I don't log it anywhere since he's in 4th I don't really care about tests now, but all the same it's treated as a test. This is what we do. He likes taking tests. :) He's using Jacobs Algebra which has a mid term review and a final exam in addition to chapter reviews. He is not a natural test taker so we do emphasis the importance of working independently and thoroughly on those especially. He's pretty sure he wants to go to public high school, so introducing public school expectations has been beneficial for him. I wouldn't expect all kids would need that, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 My kids go from home school to brick and mortar school at 9th grade. I did not give any tests in elementary school but I do start in 7th grade. [...]. Of course it's relatively risk-free at this stage of the game. [...]. I agree with his. I give my 7th grader tests in math, English, and science. I grade them and calculate his grade each quarter based on these tests. He also keeps track of his grades to know how he is doing. I do this mostly so that he will be ready for formal school classes when he goes to high school. Test taking is a very important skill which many homeschooled students don't practice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 The important part of algebra is mastery of the concepts and retention. Tests are one way of judging whether your child has mastered and retained knowledge, however they are not the only way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Unless you think test-taking is an issue for him, I wouldn't worry about it. My kids have been using AoPS for years and I never tested them on the material. The only tests I use are the AMCs and MathCounts. If they are doing well on those, I don't worry about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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