Retaking Math Tests

Retaking Math Tests at Mt. Everest Academy,
Mr. Greenwood's Courses

Students may not retake tests unless they have done the corrections following my directions. See below.

YES, I allow and recommend that students retake tests if they do poorly on a monthly test. If they do this (and prepare better the second time), they will learn the math better. Students need to know this math well as a foundation for future courses, for the annual state testing, for college entrance exams like the SAT, for college placement exams, and for coming monthly tests (almost every monthly test in this course has questions from past monthly tests). Oh, one more thing...retaking a test can also improve a student's grade.

Students may not retake tests unless they have done the corrections following my directions. See below.

WHEN?
1. Students may retake a test on any Monday at 1:00 (if school is open) without a reservation or

2. During the regularly scheduled math test week without a reservation, or

3. At a few other times by reservation. Go to this link for math retake testing times.

Students may not retake tests unless they have done the corrections following my directions. See below.

THE SCORES OF BOTH TESTS ARE AVERAGED.
That means a first-test score of 71 and a retake-test score of 96 averages to 83.5%, which I will round up to 84%.

POLICY 1: if a student does really poorly the first time, such as 38%, it would normally be almost impossible to get an average about D, so I will temporarily raise the first test score to 60% only for the purpose of averaging. EXAMPLE: a student who earns 38% for a first-test then learns it much better and earns 94% on the retake-test will then have a final score of 77%, C (that's the average of 60 and 94).

POLICY 2: The retake test is meant to help students' scores, NEVER to hurt their score. Thus, if they do worse on the retake test, the score does NOT go down. They get to keep the original score since it is higher than the retake test's score. Example: a student scores 62%, D on the first test, but only 54%, F on the retake test. The average would be 58%, F, but since I won't use a retake score if it's lower then the first test, the original 62% score will stay in the grade book and is the final score. NOTE: there is only one retake test, so if a student scores lower on the retake test, the student has used up the one opportunity to raise the score.

DO CORRECTIONS:

Students have to correct every wrong answer from the original test. They also have to write an "error statement" where they state what they did wrong the first time. The corrections and error statements must be on the same paper, set up together (NOT on the original test itself). So, if the answer to question 3 is wrong, students (1) write out the question, (2) show how to do the question correctly (getting the right answer), (3) write one sentence stating what error they made the first time, and then (4) draw a horizontal line across the page after the error statement, before starting the next question/answer/error statement/line. For specific step-by-step instructions, look at the cover page of the test.

YOU CANNOT RETAKE A TEST
unless you bring three things with you at the time of the retake test:

1. Corrections, done the right way.

2. Error statements (on the same pages as the corrections).

3. The original test itself, stapled underneath the corrections and error statements.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW (Rules, Reminders, Etc.):

WARNING: If you don’t practice--A LOT--you won’t improve. You have to practice, practice, practice, and practice even more. You have to know the math really, really well—and that only comes from practice. Doing the corrections isn’t going to be enough, just like doing all the required math work was not enough. You HAVE to practice a LOT. So, do it. Don’t procrastinate. Put it into your daily schedule—and then do it, daily.
ONE RETAKE PER TEST: Students may retake any test (except months 5 and 10), but only one time for each test. The second test will be a similar test (a version B). NOTE: Students must do all problems on the version B of the test, not just the problems similar to the incorrect problems of the first test.
NO RETAKES FOR MONTH 5 OR MONTH 10: These tests end each semester, so there is no time for a retake.
GRADING: The retake test score is averaged with the first test, as explained at the top of this page.
ADDITIONAL, NOT REPLACING: Retaking this test does not allow putting off the next month’s work and test. Students who retake tests still have to take the next month’s test on time.
SUGGESTED STUDY TIPS: In order to make the corrections required for retaking the test, follow these steps to help you relearn or figure out what you missed:

       1. First look at your work on the test, and see if any of your mistakes were due to simple calculation errors or not reading the question direction carefully enough or not copying a number or negative sign correctly from one step to the next. Those kinds of mistakes normally are due to carelessness, and you can avoid those mistakes by taking your time while doing every step, thinking carefully about each thing you are doing, and then checking over the problem after you finish it. In fact, it’s good to go back through the whole test to check all the problems again after you finish the whole test, before you hand it in.

       2. Look at the review sheet from your teacher, the textbook examples, and the worked-out solutions to similar textbook problems in your textbook’s solution manual (if in Geometry or Intermediate Algebra), or on Hotmath (all other math courses).

       3. Ask for help from your parent or whoever normally helps you with your math.

     4. Bring the original test to me (Mr. Greenwood) during a scheduled math help/tutoring time so I can help you understand it better.

THE WHOLE POINT: The whole point of all this is to learn the math better, and to first show me that you did learn it better through the corrections and statements that you know what you did wrong and that you now know the correct way to do each and every problem. If you don't do the preparation, it's not worth retaking the test, because you won't do much better. However, preparing this way should help you learn the material really well--and that's the whole point.

web counter