INNOVATIVE FORMS OF COMPULSORY PRE-EXAM TESTS: STUDY OF STUDENTS’ ACCEPTANCE

The present paper introduces a case study concerning the students’ self-evaluation of a new form of pre-exam testing. The study is based on: a) the actual test- an interactive pre-exam quiz (with a graphic interface built in Flash3d) and b) an evaluation questionnaire with 10 closed items and an opened feedback question. The quiz’ questions belong to mathematical analysis, linear algebra and analytical geometry fields and cover the most important subjects from the first semester course in Mathematics. The quiz is intended as a self assessment test and it is not scored. In order to motivate the students and enhance their preparation for the final examination, the level of difficulty of the quiz is medium towards high. The pre-exam quiz’ questions are more complex than regular exercise tests, since in the final examination we verify the acquired knowledge through a similar format. In order to make this new form of preparation attractive for students, a short story was included in the beginning of the quiz allowing an interesting approach to the pre-exam questions. By answering the questions, the students get an insight view of possible applications of the mathematical notions they have learnt about and they are encouraged to search for and provide some more applications. Following the completion of the quiz, the students were given the evaluation form. In this paper we have included the main findings and conclusions obtained from the application of the feed-back questionnaire. The questionnaire is scored and the results justify this new pedagogical approach in the actual learning environment. We also discuss some of the drawbacks of this form of testing as they have appeared from the students’ answers to the feedback question.