After spending the ENTIRE weekend studying for that test, exhausting your brain power for one specific course, and the professor assigns a quiz for the very next class meeting, why wouldn’t you be upset?
Many students work hard throughout college to fight for a good GPA when they graduate. The only problem is some professors might not have those students’ best interests in mind. When professors give a quiz the day after a test, students’ grades and motivation plummet.
Testing is an essential part of a college education in order to make sure students retain the information they are studying. That is an understandable request — to ask students to know what they will be tested on and what they have been learning in class. However, when a professor tests students excessively, there seems to be a sudden drop in motivation.
It can be argued when learning a new language or culture, the best way to understand and the quickest way to learn is through immersion. To completely place oneself in a different environment forces people to learn how to communicate and thrive in a particular area.
On the other hand, immersion in other classes besides language doesn’t seem like such a dependable way to learn when in a classroom environment.
So, back to the topic of quizzes the day after tests.
Students attend class after an exam in order to go over the test and figure out what they got right or wrong, not to be quizzed on more information they have barely had time or effort to put into because they have been studying the last few days for the test just last class.
Now, if a student got multiple concepts on a test confused and received multiple wrong answers on that portion of the exam, it makes absolutely no sense to quiz on other chapters that expand on the content a student failed to understand.
It is also selfish for professors to think their class needs that much testing. Students have very busy schedules anyway taking anywhere between 12 and 18 hours a week of school on top of working and trying to spend an appropriate amount of time relaxing on the weekends before stressing about tests, quizzes and projects due for classes the following week.
Many students are discouraged with this issue and seem to just give up when it comes to the reading and quiz that following day. To require students to do even more after they have studied days, if not weeks, in order to succeed, is completely disrespectful of a student’s time and effort. On top of that, everything else the students must complete during the week seems improbable. They are exhausted after their test and, frankly, don’t have the energy for much else.
Therefore, if professors want to push students to learn more, maybe the best way isn’t pushing them to the edge. Maybe it’s understanding what encourages a student and what drives him or her.
If professors truly cared about the students’ well being, a day or two to rest and recuperate mentally the day after an exam isn’t a lot to ask for. They need to teach the students what to fix and show them what they did right. Students would more easily learn what they need to be better at, rather than testing a student the day after they have already been tested and discouraging them to do well.
