Students are often tired or bored when it comes to preparing for exams. However, it’s the only way through which the teachers can evaluate how much and how well did the students grab and learn from the subjects. It helps teachers to understand the level of proficiency of the students.

Setting question papers might seem like a huge task as teachers have to strike a balance between setting a good paper and make sure that all the students can perform well or at a satisfactory level.

It is advisable to keep the below-mentioned points in mind when designing an effective exam question paper –

Must include Important topics

As a tutor, whatever you feel is the most important part of the subjects that have been taught to the students, must be asked in the question paper. It will make you gauge if the students were able to understand and remember properly or not. The important topics cover a major part of the chapters so it’s best to include questions related to them.

Spread Awareness

To see how students are creative or can keep up with the different situation, frame some questions that will bring awareness to the community. For example, you can include a question that asks ‘how would you spread awareness about recycling in your community’. This will help them to think about such situations and how to deal with them.

Have Realistic Expectations

Involve questions that even an average student can answer. The questions shouldn’t be too tough to answer because then students who lag in a particular subject may not be able to answer the tough questions or earn sufficient score to pass the test. So, it is significant to have realistic expectations regardless of your students’ grade in school. Many IB school teachers in the Middle East including Dubai, make use of a standardized ‘question bank’ for this purpose.

Prepare a Marking Scheme

You shouldn’t give fewer marks for the same mistakes. It’s very much known for a fact that if a student makes a mistake in one answer then it is likely to be repeated in the next answer as well. They shouldn’t be given fewer marks for it time and again. Also, include notes next to the marks so that the students know the exact reason behind them. This way, they can remember what mistakes were made by them and they will try to not repeat those mistakes.

Don’t be too Strict

If a student has scored fewer marks in the exam then they should be able to cover it up with assignments and projects. You need to understand that some students aren’t able to perform well due to anxiety and pressure of doing well in the exams. You can give some grace marks to the students for attempting the exam. Nowadays marks can be covered in project work and class presentations. Most schools use a 60-40% approach where 40% is allocated to class-work activities.

Transparent Marking Criteria

The students should know exactly why they have scored good marks or fewer marks. Let them know by including it on the question paper and explaining what’s the criteria and how will mark them.

Understand Student’s Perspective

It is very important to understand the student’s perspective too. You might have asked the question with a different intention but they might’ve interpreted it differently. So, it’s essential to try and understand their perspective.

Markezy is a brand that has helped teachers to set effective question papers and evaluate the answers from the students. It is easily accessible in UAE, GCC and other Middle Eastern countries. It has been very effective and can be used anytime, anywhere. The best part is that the written assessments can be scanned easily into the Markezy system using any scanner.

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