​Assessments are an opportunity to find out what students understand. Questions should be carefully crafted to give students the opportunity to show what they know, but also expose what they don’t.
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Have a subscription to the Assessment Platform for AP Precalculus? Click below to view, print, or customize your Calc Medic assessment.
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What Makes a Great Assessment?
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When it comes to creating assessments, we follow these guiding principles:
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Start with the Learning Targets. There should be a very strong alignment between what is learned in class (Calc Medic Lessons), what is done for practice (Calc Medic homework) and assessments (Calc Medic quizzes and tests). The throughline that holds all of these together is the Learning Targets.
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Assess more than just procedural skills. We want students to grasp deep conceptual ideas, not just be able to follow an algorithm to arrive at an answer. We write creative questions that reveal student thinking by asking them to explain, decide, interpret, defend, and demonstrate their reasoning. Our assessments incorporate all four representations (numerical, graphical, analytical, verbal), matching the rigor and style of the AP Exam.
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Mix it up! By changing up what we ask students to find or how we present the given information, we can determine with greater specificity where students are in the learning progression. We use a mix of basic, intermediate, and advanced questions on every assessment and questions may be given in a multiple-choice, short answer, or free response format. Assessments should provide students opportunities to demonstrate understanding with and without the use of a calculator.