Peng Zhang

OCT. 27
TP#6
Learning from Preparation for Tests

Introduction
Having been in the Applied Linguistic Department for one year, I was
surprised to hear that we would have a mid-term in the APLNG 482Y, Introduction to
Applied Linguistic. It was the first mid-term I ever had in the department (and
probably will also be the last one Ill have). The test itself wasnt very interesting
compared to other classmates stories, but I conclude this mid-term as interesting
because it really provided me another opportunity to learn.
The Interesting Test
From the very first class, I was already very concerned about the mid-term.
So I asked professor Makoni and his adjunct Abigail what the mid-term would look
like as we were going over the syllabus. To my surprise again, they said they hadnt
decided about the details of mid-term yet, but assured me that the mid-term would
look nothing like the typical undergraduate mid-term, which is often full of multiple
choices. With this in mind, I kind of relieved a little bit. But as the date of mid-term
approaching, I and other students in that class were worried about the test more and
more. There was no further information provided about the mid-term since the first
class. In fact, no word about the mid-term was ever mentioned in the classroom
discussion so far. So at the end of one class, when Abigail asked if there were any
other questions, I brought up the mid-term again and asked specifically what would be
in the test. She seemed to be very surprised to see me and other classmates being so
occupied with the mid-term. She cleared her throat and said, You guys are
graduate students and are pretty good at testing. Then she added, dont worry, the
test will be pretty informal.

Peng Zhang
OCT. 27
TP#6
The next class, to our surprise, she devoted about 20 minutes answering our
questions about the mid-term. In these 20 minutes, I think everyone in the class felt
much better and confident in taking the mid-term. Because we learned what would be
covered in the mid-term (basically what we discussed in the classes), what form
would the mid-term take (four short answer questions, specific definitions will not be
tested), what kind of answers were preferred (no right and wrong answer as long as
you back up your arguments, especially with concrete examples) and all the other
miscellaneous questions such as how long should each short answer be? and Can
we use dictionary to check spelling? In my opinion, the best part of these 20 minutes
is when Abigail mentioned we could form small discussion groups to do some review
for the mid-term. And that was exactly what we did one week before the mid-term.
Xiaonan, Yingxue, and I formed a small group and spent a whole afternoon reviewing
and discussing the chapters we have covered so far. Everyone had their class notes in
hand, and as we went through the chapters, we each pointed out the concepts that we
thought were important or difficult to understand. Sometimes we had furious debates
regarding to some issues (for example, what is native speaker?). At the end of the
discussion, we even predicted some potential questions that were more likely to be in
the mid-term. When the mid-term finally came, I felt the test itself was no longer
important at all. Because I could say to myself that I had learned much more beyond
the four questions. By the way, we did pretty well in our predictions.
Discussion
I.

Looking back, I may probably never dare to ask teachers what the test will
look like, or what contents will be tested in China. Because, on the one hand,
even if you ask about it, the teacher will never tell you anything about the test
(they prefer to tell you everything after the test is graded). On the other

Peng Zhang
OCT. 27
TP#6
hand, the test in China, to some extent, is considered something to set the
II.

teachers against the students.

Talking about the discussion group, I was actually thinking of arranging a
small group discussion before (not necessary for this test, but for all the
general projects, presentations and so on), but because we have little
information about the mid-term, I feared the group discussion would be very
inefficient since we didnt have any clue of which direction we should go. And
thats why after Abigail explained the mid-term I immediately asked Xiaonan

III.

and Yingxue if they wanted to have a group discussion.

It would be very tiring to review all the chapters by myself. But by discussing,
I noticed some important points that I had missed in my own preparation for
the group discussion. I think at the end of the discussion, the original purpose
of passing the mid-term changed into clearing all the muddy points in the
classroom discussions. By talking myself through some notions that I thought
I already knew, I got even better understanding of them. I think this clearly
demonstrates the idea that when you are able to teach others a certain

IV.

concept, you internalized that concept fully.

The fact that Abigail and professor Makoni framed the mid-term as informal
and low-stake, but at the same time gave clear instruction and explanation of
the test creates a big positive washback. It makes me and others willing to
prepare for the test and as I said above, the test itself became less important
because we learned much more in preparing for it. Last but not least, I dont
believe the fact that we did pretty well in predicting the possible questions in
the mid-term is a coincidence, but rather it shows the test itself is designed in
parallel with the corresponding classroom discussions.