Preparing for Standardized Tests
Is prepping for exams a challenge?
People who are preparing for standardized texts often do similar tests for practice. Perhaps you do too: reviewing past exams, or exams your teacher provided, or some that you find in books or online.
You may have received a grade on a practice exam without any feedback on which questions you got right or wrong. Perhaps you were even asked to mark the questions yourself. Those are not learning opportunities. You need immediate, relevant feedback.
So try this instead:
- Answer the question. Don’t rush. Try to be thorough.
- When you think your answer is correct and will get the marks, then ask AI for an answer.
- Now the learning begins. Compare: if AI provided a different answer from yours, find out what and why. Has it added a detail you missed? Do you think its answer is better than yours? If you cannot work out why the answers are different, ask your AI program to explain the difference to an eight year old. Consider even asking to have it explain to a four year old (you might like the examples).
- When you get the explanation, try explaining it to someone else.
Examining and criticising the AI’s answer is where you learn.
Do the questions one at a time. Keep answering practice questions until most of your questions are right.
Only when you’re getting most of the questions right, do timed exams (to make sure you get the exam done in the time available).
AI can help you learn if you use it well , or it can undermine your learning if you use it lazily. Always do it yourself first. Always reflect.