Fewer tests, more feedback: Reexamining college grading

By Ben Morgenstern / Columnist

Nearly all students can recall a time when a test gave them trouble. 

Tests come with stress and are notoriously inaccurate at gauging a student’s knowledge of a subject. Researchers have linked sustained mental stress to multiple health issues, like sleep problems, depression and eating disorders. According to the National College Health Assessment, one-third of college students in the past 12 months had difficulty functioning because of depression, while half said they felt overwhelming anxiety. 

Professors, especially in non-humanities departments, which often rely on highly consequential exams more than multiple papers for grading, should understand these realities and attempt to provide a less mentally taxing grading system for their students. They should put less priority on exams and more priority on homework and weekly quizzes.

In a common college course, there are usually only three or four tests a semester, which can easily account for half of your final grade. Weekly homework and quizzes are common but usually account only for a mere letter grade or two.

College exams, especially in non-arithmetic based courses, can be subjective, depending on the professor. Two students could have the same level of understanding of a subject, yet one could receive a much lower grade on an essay just because of how a professor interprets his or her writing.

An average test tends to incentivize memorization over actually learning.

Students spend countless hours poring over and memorizing equations to ace exams. Memorizing, however, doesn’t assist students in real-life situations in which one must interpret problems before finding solutions.

For one, students would feel less stressed if tests had less of an effect on their grade. 

In the college environment, where stress levels are already incredibly high, anything we can do to help lower stress is beneficial for students. Besides stress, professors who prioritize homework and quizzes more tend to average out students’ knowledge in classes. 

Rather than evaluating a student on three or four tests, 10 to 15 quizzes and homework assignments would give the professor more data to use when evaluating a student’s knowledge. In fact, a 2014 study by Abdulrazaq A. Imam at John Carroll University showed that, in sections of introductory psychology, research design and learning and behavior courses, mean assessment gains were substantially larger for students who took weekly quizzes than for those who did not.

There isn’t one solution that would work across all departments, according to Lara Putnam, a history professor at Pitt. 

While math and science departments tend to be exam- and homework-focused, history and English departments focus more on readings and papers.

“We want to give students a chance to really show what they know,” Putnam said, adding that each student has a “different skillset in different forms of assessment.”

While some students may excel in a testing environment, others may prefer writing papers or giving presentations to display their understanding of class material. 

Lower stress quizzes would help with assessing a student’s knowledge, Putnam agreed, but she also pointed out some flaws. 

“Grading that many quizzes can be time-consuming,” Putnam said, “there are only 24 hours in a day.” 

“Quizzes can be used as ‘formative assessment,’” Putnam said. If a professor is experienced, they can gauge where the class is as a whole and shape the rest of the class around those results. Weekly quizzes can be a good form of communication between the students and the professors.

If professors implemented changes to their grading system — for example, by adding more frequent quizzes and homework assignments — then students would benefit both academically and personally, thereby promoting learning and reducing stress, which should be the goal of every professor aiming to better the development of their students holistically.

Ben Morgenstern primarily writes about education for The Pitt News.

Write to Ben at [email protected].