Pop Quizzes: Largely Useless

A surprise or pop quiz is given to a class by a teacher to see if their class has read the assigned readings or not. A novel idea one may think but it is only a novel idea in theory. There are a lot of times where students might attempt to read the assigned material, but they do not have it completely committed to memory as of yet.

Even the students who have in fact read the assigned material and have memorized it, are going to be thrown a little off by the surprised quizzes. Some people who have in fact read the material are caught off by surprise and thus they might question if they really did read it completely. Self-doubt begins to sink in and they might not do well on the pop quiz.

The hearts of many teachers are going to be in the right place, they want to make sure their students are going to get the most out of the classes. However the method of testing this one simple fact is far from the most ideal. Springing a surprise quiz on the students will cause those who did not read to feel bad that they did not. Which might again in theory be a good thing, but they suddenly feel a lower sense of self-worth and self-esteem. Even those who read the material that the pop quiz is on, given the spontaneous nature if all, they might have their own self doubts.

As I mentioned, many teachers are going to have their hearts in the right place. However there are many times with other teachers that one may get a sense that the teacher is not having the best day. Therefore they spring a pop quiz on their students in an attempt to bring them down to raise the spirits of the teacher. Is it nice? No. Is it professional? Absolutely not. Does it happen? More than a few times in my personal experience.

Assign the readings each and every night, give the homework, set the quizzes and tests on certain dates. A pop quiz is not going to guilt a student that will already be lazy in studying even more. More likely it is going to cause them not study and grow their loathing for the entire educational process. Perhaps a pop quiz or two might not destroy the love for learning of a student but the dents that it causes in their dedication to study is not to be denied.

In the end those who will study, will study. Perhaps some will step up their performance throughout the time. However, trying to force the issue by scaring them with a pop quiz is rarely going to have a positive effect. It is going to have a negative effect. Good students will be good, some students will be improve, but those who will not study are not going to hasten to do so any faster through scare tactics.