- Only test what you have taught. This includes the content and the structure of the exam. For example, if you've only given them exercises where they've had to circle the correct answer, it wouldn't be fair to give them fill in the blank / gap exercises.
- Buy an exam book. It's make your life a whole lot easier.
- Be strict. Don't allow talking, borrowing pencils, erasers, cell phones, etc,. Tell students ahead of time and be sure that your coordinator backs you up.
- Check answers together. This allows students to get their results faster as well as ask you questions then and there. You might have to check writing by yourself though.
- Think outside the box. Besides traditional methods look into other ways to assess students.
- Proof-read. Check for typos and simple mistakes.
- Do your tests ahead of time. Sit down and write all your exams at once. This will make sure you're consistent and get them out of the way.
- Make an answer key. It's save you a lot of trouble.
- Vary the exercises. Fill in the blank / gap, true / false, correct the mistake, open-ended questions, note taking, summaries, jumbled sentences, matching, and multiple choice are some ideas. Look at johnslat's suggestions on different testing exercises. Check out Bloom's Taxotomy of Learning as well for more ideas.
- Make them easy to grade. The more objective, the better.
This article has also been published in the ELT Times.
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