Pop quizes in school?

[golfgal]

On another board a mom is posting that her junior in high school in an AP literature class had a quiz on a book that was assigned to be read over the weekend. He didn't do well on it and she thinks that they should not be tested on material that wasn't taught in class. . Did you have quizzes like this when you were in school? We ALWAYS had a quiz at the start of class over assigned chapters in a book. She is also claiming he has never had a pop quiz in any class, ever (and she never had pop quizzes all through college). We had them all the time. I don't see anything wrong about pop quizzes or even scheduled quizzes on assigned material but she wants to go to the teacher and complain. What was your experience in school?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Quizes, "pop" or otherwise, are a way of assessing a student's knowledge, regardless of whether they were taught it in class, or told to study/read for homework. The teacher did a pop quiz probably to make sure the students actually did do the reading assignment they were supposed to do over the weekend. I bet this teacher has had problems in the past either with this class or other classes with students not doing the assigned reading. I think it's perfectly fine.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I can't remember last week let alone what happended in school
BUT I do feel if the teacher told you to read or write something why wouldn't you do it He didn't do well becasue he didn't read it or read it all or give it his all.Becasue it was a week end maybe?
I do remember that we would have reading assignments and we would have a quiz to see if we read before we talked about it in class and guess that is pretty much the same thing you are saying. IF it were my son I would of expetced him to do the assignment over the week end just becasue you never know.

 

[mhsjax]

We had them when I was in school. My kids have a quiz on reading material done over the summer. NO big deal to me. I can't believe that she has never had a pop quiz.

 

[swanmom]

I used to coordinate freshman orientation at a major East Coast university. One of the first 'factoids' we told new students was: "In high school, you spend 80-85% of your time in class with your teacher in front of you and 15 -20% of your time out of class working on your own. In college, it all gets reversed. Your in-class, teacher-directed time will amount to about 15 -20%, the other 80-85% is your independent work and study time."
The kids who were ready to take an assignment, complete it on time and be responsible for its content were the ones who were ready for college. I actually feel strongly that this teacher is helping them!

 

[bfeller]

We would almost always get a quiz or a pop quiz after we had been assigned a reading assignment in a lot of novels (Literature) and I never felt that it was unfair.

Now I wasn't good in math and science and I didn't care for quizes on those subjects before we had time to go over it in class. I just at times had a hard time wrapping my mind around certain subjects.

But in my mind, literature is different than trying to understand a concerpt in math or science

 

[golfgal]

I used to coordinate freshman orientation at a major East Coast university. One of the first 'factoids' we told new students was: "In high school, you spend 80-85% of your time in class with your teacher in front of you and 15 -20% of your time out of class working on your own. In college, it all gets reversed. Your in-class, teacher-directed time will amount to about 15 -20%, the other 80-85% is your independent work and study time."
The kids who were ready to take an assignment, complete it on time and be responsible for its content were the ones who were ready for college. I actually feel strongly that this teacher is helping them!

This is pretty much what I told her-it's and AP class, it is supposed to be like a college class and by junior year in high school, this shouldn't be an issue. She also had problems because not everything on another test was on the study guide-well welcome to higher learning .

 

[kamik86]

I honestly rarely had pop quizes in college and I honestly don't think I ever did in high school. We would get assignments on the reading but they were just normal assignments they didn't have the weight of quizes and tests on our final grade.

The only ones I remember in college is that sometimes when a class is having really low attendance for some reason the teacher feels is inappropriate (for example 3/4 of a class being absent from an 8:00 am class the monday after the super bowl) the teacher would sometimes give a quiz at the end on what he taught in class but this was really easy and really just a way to give points to those of us that bothered to show up.

I have however had MANY college professors add questions to the test that you would easily be able to answer if you did the reading but that he never mentioned in class. For example there was a large example/discussion on an image of pistachio ice cream in the reading for one of my classes. So he may ask about the ice cream flavor on the test (the flavor mattered due to the color on the image so they would remember if they read it). I don't have a problem with this, part of the class is doing the assignments and not just writing down everything the teacher told you.

 

[clh2]

This is pretty much what I told her-it's and AP class, it is supposed to be like a college class and by junior year in high school, this shouldn't be an issue. She also had problems because not everything on another test was on the study guide-well welcome to higher learning .

Yep - it is an AP class.The good news for this "snowflake" is I doubt heblow off another reading assignment again. It is still a lesson learned...

 

[kamik86]

She also had problems because not everything on another test was on the study guide-well welcome to higher learning

She would hate my current class. The study guide is just last years test... but the curriculum changes a bit so there are things we covered that aren't on there and questions on the test that we didnt cover and won't be on ours. The teacher told us this when he gave us the practice test... the point was more to see what types of things he would be asking and what to expect on the test. (computer science classes have some unusually formatted tests in order to avoid having us write code on a test since it is generally a waste of time for us and the grader to do so)

 

[luvmy3]

The least of this kid's problem is a bad grade on a pop quiz

 

[SpecialK]

Always gave pop quizzes on reading material. It provided an extra incentive to actually do the homework.

 

[minkydog]

This is pretty much what I told her-it's and AP class, it is supposed to be like a college class and by junior year in high school, this shouldn't be an issue. She also had problems because not everything on another test was on the study guide-well welcome to higher learning .

Well, that's my thought too--if he's smart enough for APs, he's capable of taking a pop quiz. It's not like he's in 3rd grade and needs everything spoon fed. I"m sure the teacher has had a problem with students not reading the required assignments. Hopefully, this will be a wake up call for this student--when the teacher assigns reading, by golly, you better do it! I had my first pop-quizzes in college and boy! was I in for a rude awakening! But you better believe they only caught me off-guard once or twice. Pop quiz grades can make the difference in passing with a C and passing with a B or better.

 

[Hannathy]

Yep I had them and my DD who is in college had them and is having them, her AP Bio teacher loved them so dis AP Psych! and my DS who is in 6th has them.

Whatever college that snowflake goes to is going to have fun! AS his high school teachers probably are already.

 

[Aneille]

I hated any pop quiz and I don't like them as a teaching tool but I do understand why some teachers use them. And I would never complain. And yes I was an AP student and I had them in high school. I never had 1 in college and I went to 2 different schools.

Every teacher expects their class to be the most important in a students life but it can't be that way all the time. Especially for a student with a heavy course load and is loaded up with extra curricular activities. That student learns to manage their time and that means sometimes reading that book gets pushed to a later date in favor of a chemistry test that is 20% of the grade. A good student still gets the book read. They may just read more chapters on Monday when their assignments or outside activities are lessened a bit.

But that is life and its the student's choice to risk a pop quiz.

I guess I would like it if the teacher stated up front the first week of school to expect pop quiz's sometimes. Then the student knows that there is a possibility of a poor grade on a quiz by not doing the reading/assignment that is not expected to be handed in.

The flip side is the student could just assume that there are pop quiz's in every class.

For the student in the OP, its lesson learned. This particular teacher will give you a pop quiz, better read the chapters. And this is what I will be telling my kid when they fail their first pop quiz.

 

[okeydokey]

If the book was assigned reading, then getting a quiz on it is perfectly reasonable, even a pop quiz. Next time maybe he'll actually read the book.

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

Yes, I had pop quizzes in school.


If the kid had a book to read over the weekend he should have read it and been prepared.

 

[goofy4tink]

Hmmmm, sounds like one of my dd's classmates. They are juniors, in an honors English class that has a ton of reading. And I have to admit, some of the required reading isn't all 'that' interesting. But, that's park of being in an honors class. So, the other day, this classmate raises her hand, and asks the teacher why they aren't reading fun stuff, that's actually interesting. The teacher just looked at her and said...''Well, because this is honors English. That's why it's 'honors'..it's harder!'' Too funny.

Some of these kids are going to be at a loss when they leave their 'bubble' behind. College is going to be a rude awakening. As it is, we have parents in our high school that do literally everything for their junior and senior children. wonder if they are planning on going to college with them.

 

[golfgal]

Hmmmm, sounds like one of my dd's classmates. They are juniors, in an honors English class that has a ton of reading. And I have to admit, some of the required reading isn't all 'that' interesting. But, that's park of being in an honors class. So, the other day, this classmate raises her hand, and asks the teacher why they aren't reading fun stuff, that's actually interesting. The teacher just looked at her and said...''Well, because this is honors English. That's why it's 'honors'..it's harder!'' Too funny.

Some of these kids are going to be at a loss when they leave their 'bubble' behind. College is going to be a rude awakening. As it is, we have parents in our high school that do literally everything for their junior and senior children. wonder if they are planning on going to college with them.

No kidding. I keep thinking the same thing about this mom, how on earth does she think her son will make it through college if she expects him to only be tested on material taught in class, ESPECIALLY in an AP class. The teachers told the parents at open house that a good majority of their information for tests will NOT be given in class and the kids WILL have to read their books and other materials, and I would expect that in AP classes.

 

[castleview]

Not so much in college, but we had pop quizzes in high school all the time. It was usually on stuff that we were assigned to read or stuff we went over already. You almost had to expect them.

DD gets pop quizzes in math and sometimes it's material that she hasn't seen. It's a way to assess where the students are at and I have no problem with that all.