One of the most important aspects of learning is being assessed. It is important for your tutor to assess you as it helps you to find out where you are struggling. It can also show how far you have come and where you have improved!
When a tutor is referred to you, one of the first things that tutor will do is to carry out an ‘initial assessment’. This is a way of finding out more about you, your approach to the given subject and to pinpoint the areas that you find particularly difficult. After that, the tutor will also carry out ‘formative assessment’. That might sound like a scary phrase but it basically just means they will be keeping track of how you are improving and in what areas specifically. There are lots of fun ways for you to keep track of progress together with your tutor.
An example of one of these is ‘Traffic Lighting Topics’. As you grow in confidence you can allocate new colours to them to visually see your own progress. Red represents ‘difficult’, amber represents ‘some difficulty’ and green represents being completely ‘confident’ with a given topic. So as you progress and improve, you can assess yourself by changing these colours as you grow in ability and confidence.
Exam preparation
Your tutor will also help you to prepare for upcoming exams. One of the best ways to do this is to work through sample exam papers and mark them together with your tutor as this helps you to understand what the examiner will be looking for. The exam is the ultimate form of assessment, which is why it is so important a for mini assessments to be carried out along the way so you are fully ready for this.
So, assessments may sound scary but it’s really just away of helping you to prepare and also making sure you will be able to see your own progress!