Learn the rules as you really must win the studying game because the stakes are so high. They will affect the rest of your life, good or bad

Goals

• Knowing your goals fuel achievement
• The goal is where we want to be. The objectives are the steps needed to get there
• Know the extent of course to be covered
• Understand timelines in which this has to be done
• Break your course in short objectives
• Each objective should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART)

Challenges

Identify your challenges. Some common challenges are

• Challenge 1 : Lack of complete preparation
• Challenge 2 : Lack of self-discipline
• Challenge 3 : How to prepare
• Challenge 4 : Time management
• Challenge 5 : Impact of negative marks
• Challenge 6 : Exam in computer based exam environment
• Challenge 7 : Lack of self confidence

Illustrations

• Preparing for JEE MAIN
• Planning starts in class XIth itself
• Total Time Window is 21 months – Studies start in July and end by March next year(Don’t be under impression that its lot of time)
• Time window for studies : 19 months – Max by January next year
• Time window for revision and exam practice 1 months ( By January end your concentration would be more on Board Exams) – Only month of April
• Understand Exam Process and how to work within testing window
• Devise a plan and stick to it
• Discipline Concentrate in class – Self assess the topic taught, identify gap, bridge the gap same day as there will another topic waiting to be mastered next day
• Benchmark all assessments at least on average on last years maximum marks and cut off marks
• Every week self assess on all topics taught in week in one go
• Every month repeat the process

Students

After studying a particular subject or topic, few questions remain unanswered in your mind

Have I understood what I studied ?

Is my understanding adequate ?

Have I covered enough in this topic ?

Is my knowledge adequate for the test?

Can I complete the test in time ?

What is effect of negative marking pattern while attempting a test?

TestBag helps to answer these questions and clear your doubts by initiating you

In monitoring your own performance on knowledge, skills, time management etc

Learning to be critique of your own knowledge and understanding

Learning to take full responsibilities of your performance

Learning about your shortcomings and initiate steps for improvement

Learning from your mistakes and improving on them

Learning about topics you have not covered or covered inadequately

Learning where you stand vis-a-vis peers in this competitive world of education

Teachers

Self Assessment results of your student are in Test History.

Discuss short comings. Give him advise and solutions where ever required

Please also check whether any area in a particular subject / topic has been not covered. Kindly guide the student on the same.

Please review if there is need to change any instructional method if many students in class are reflecting weakness in same topic (say thermodynamics) or in same area (say numerical)

If there any mistakes in TestBag please send us a feedback to correct ourselves and improve.

Parents

Ask yourself a question Is my child making expected progress towards achieving his goals and am I sure about it ?. In many cases the answer would be “I don’t know” or “He is doing fine but I am not sure”

Progress report may not provide you specific information based on assessment whether your child is making progress towards his goals or not. You need to evaluate along with your child his strengths and weaknesses and initiate steps to fill the gap in his educational needs and help him achieve his goals

Your personal involvement / interest in your child’s education gives him motivation to progress further.

Just ask him what he has studied today. Encourage him to take a 15 minutes self test on each subject or topic taught to him in the school / college / institution today. You and your child will get idea of his present level of performance. (You can get details of his performance for each test taken in the Test History)

Pat him if he has done well. Discuss with him the shortcomings. There could also be areas in the topic that have been not covered in the lessons taught to him. Encourage him to improve next day if he is under performing and initiate a planned action for improvement of his performance and monitor the same for progress

Click Here For More Details

Blended Learning in School/Institution

Blended Learning solves the problem of speed, scale, and impact – and leverages e-learning where it’s most appropriate, without forcing e-learning into places it does not fit

Blended learning tends to pick advantages both of traditional learning and digital knowledge. It enhances delivery methods to improve learning productivity

TestBag complements to perfect the art of Blended Learning , a technique that seamlessly integrates the advantages of traditional content (paper based study material), teacher/instructor directed learning (face to face sessions) with technology mediated (digital and visual) instructions and the convenience of web based assessments to deliver cost effective and flexible learning options for today’s learners

For details and implementation contact us or mail us at testbag@testbag.com

Historically, a major role of assessment has been to detect and highlight differences in student learning in order to rank students according to their achievement. Such assessment experiences have produced winners and losers. Some students succeed early and build on winning streaks to learn more as they grow; others fail early and often, falling farther and farther behind.
As we all know, the mission of schools has changed. Today’s schools are less focused on merely sorting students and more focused on helping all students succeed in meeting standards. This evolution in the mission of schools means that we can’t let students who have not yet met standards fall into losing streaks, succumb to hopelessness, and stop trying.
Assessment today have multiple purposes

1. Assessment as aid for learning during instructional phase (formative assessment)
2. Assessment to certify achievement after instructional phase (summative assessment)
3. Assessment initiating lifelong learning (sustainable assessment)

In fact sustainable assessment is natural extension of formative assessment even after formal education is over

Some Key Features of  Effective Assessments

Organization and Structure of Assessments
Assessments are more effective if there is logical and sequential organization of assessments with element of randomness within the organized structure

Appropriate Assessments
Assessments will be more effective when appropriate assessments are presented at the appropriate level for the students keeping in view grade/maturity level/ psychological development of the students

For example  calculus assessment would be more appropriate for 12th grade students than 9th grade students.

Assessments to match learning needs
Assessments are more effective when assessment content matches learning needs of the students.
Students must see the relevance of the assessments  to themselves.

Assessments to have appropriate range of challenge
If assessments  are too easy, students will not take the activity seriously.

If assessments  are too difficult, students give up before attempting the activity.

Assessments should have achievable challenge leading to natural extension of student’s knowledge

Challenge motivate student’s to excel

Assessments results to be timely
Students are more likely to take assessments if they get quick results to enable them to monitor their knowledge and progress.

Assessment success as a Motivator
Students who have experienced success in assessments  will be more motivated to on new assessments.

Directed Assessments and  Undirected Assessments
Assessment not specified but directed by teacher are likely to be more effective as they would be more relevant to topics taught and will same time

Undirected assessments may be more time consuming but student is limited by student’s own creativity leading to self construction of knowledge and not to the extent of teacher’s knowledge

Key Concept – Assessment should lead to inquiry based learning
Learning can be effectively undertaken when you understand what is known to you, what remains to be known and initiate steps to bridge the gap

Teaching leads to good instructions but learning is self construction of this knowledge in one’s mind.

Assessment results  should  give incorrect and correct answers but student should put up effort to understand how/why or key concept of correct answer by taking help of books, peers and teachers/mentors

Assessments should move students from being taught mode to learning mode

Students learn more completely if they are expected to “look up” for the unknown knowledge  rather than being spoon fed. This is not what they necessarily prefer, but the question is not of preference but of effectiveness. We remember the things we have had to look up ourselves rather than those were told.

Learners find knowledge retention long lived in their minds, because they put in efforts to gain understanding in form clear enough for them. Learning leaves learner enriched with lasting knowledge

Online Testing

Assessment is the process of measuring knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes and documenting the same.

In general assessment can be objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one current answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false multiple choice and multiple-response etc. Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays.

Objective assessment is becoming more popular as they are easier to administer, a large area of subjects/topics can be covered and can be assessed in small time. In addition the chances of errors on account of handwriting etc are also eliminated.

In objective assessment multiple choice questions are most popular although true/false, multiple response, fill-in-blanks and matching are also used in some exams.

In past few years responses of objective assessment are recorded on machine readable forms and as such results are drawn more quickly and accurately.

Recently dramatic increase in usage of Computers and internet has supported increased use of online assessment using objective questions

Online testing broadly is a assessment by using information technology. This generally is also called as e- assessment.

The assessment can be based on a criteria or can be general i.e without any specific criteria such as IQ tests.

Most of exams which have specific syllabus assess students based on a certain criteria where questions are drawn from specific areas (say physics, chemistry, mathematics etc), the questions are of certain type (say multiple choice, multiple response etc) the questions are of a certain level of difficulty, the questions are to be answered in some given time and there is a criteria to allocate marks/grade for correct/incorrect responses and questions not attempted. Testbag is currently catering to such type of assessments using multiple choice questions (which is most popular form of objective assessment).

Benefits of Online Testing

You can test yourself

Anytime – Available 24 hours.

Anywhere- Can access web from anyplace to take test.

Anyhow- Can create your own test using selection criteria, allocate your own time and marks.

The results are instant.

You can or your mentors can analyse the same immediately.

Test results can be kept in history for future reference.

Everyday new questions can be added. Obsolete questions can be deleted.

Tests not only assess your knowledge but efficiency (speed and accuracy) also.

Model Tests can be build keeping in view exam patterns, timings and marking pattern for practice.

Test Preparation

Test preparation is an ongoing process that needs to be done throughout the period of study. Getting off on the right foot at the beginning is a must. Rome is never built in a day.

Few suggestions :

• • Make and follow a workable time schedule.
  • Concentrate during classes whether in school /college or coaching institutes.
  • Take your notes, jot important points to remember
  • Review the knowledge you have gained subject wise /topic wise/ subtopic wise or keyword wise by taking a test daily/weekly depending upon the depth of your course curriculum
  • You can build your own test on a particular subject/topic/subtopic/keyword by choosing number of questions to be attempted by you, level of difficulty for the questions and time to be given for the test. You can also assign scores for correct, incorrect and questions not attempted .

There is a testbag help guide to make you understand how to build your test, how difficulty levels are assigned. Kindly go through the same before building a suitable test for yourself.

There is also subject wise details of topics/subtopics covered and keywords if any associated with subject/topic/subtopic to help you search questions on a particular keyword wherever applicable/available. (Keywords may not be available for some subjects/topics/subtopics)

• • You can also take a test based on default values for number of questions, level of difficulties, times for test, scores for correct, incorrect and not attempted questions
  • If you have completed the course and now getting ready to take exam, you can practice on complete set of questions for a exam where all values-
    topics/subtopic/sections
    number of questions
    time to attempt the questions
    scores for questions
  • The test taken by you are kept as a history for a limited time. You can access the same, analyse the results and discuss the same with your teachers/guides/ mentors to improve further
  • The key in competitive exam is :

It is not important how much you know about a subject but how much you know more than others. That is what differentiates a winner from a loser

Pre-requisites

The user will require a computer with internet connection to take online test. Alternatively there are ‘Cyber Cafes’ or ‘Internet Cafes’ that have computers connected with internet and rent the usage of connected computers on hourly /daily/monthly basis.

Minimum and recommended equipment and software requirements are:

Computer : Personal Computer (PC) should be fine. However you can use laptop . The recommended configuration of your PC / Laptop

Intel Pentium 4 or above

With minimum 256 MB RAM (Recommended 512 MB RAM)

Operating System : Either of the following

Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP,
Linux for PCs

Internet or Web browser : Either of the following

The online testing system of this site works best with Mozilla firefox version 3.0 or above . You may download the same from following link and install on your PC
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/If the user is not creating test with questions having equations , graphics or images, the online testing system of this site also works with Netscape Navigator version 6.0 or above Internet Explorer version 5.0 or above

In addition mouse to scroll pages up and down and printer attached computer are recommended.

Internet Connection : Internet Service Providers (ISP) provide internet connections. There are usually telecom companies (in India MTNL, Airtel , Reliance etc) or other service providers providing access through cable companies (In India SIFY Broadband etc). They normally charge on hourly/monthly or on basis of data downloaded from them

Optional Softwares : The following optional software are of good help

Anti-virus software : These will help defend you computer against attacks from unwanted programs (virus) downloaded on your computers which interfere with systems or erase memory from your computer. There are good number of anti-virus software available. The popular ones are Mac Affe, Norton etc

Email Software : To enable you to send or receive emails. The popular one are Outlook express etc. Alternatively you can use free ‘email’ facility provided by websites such as hotmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.

TestBag –  Online Assessment System

TestBag is first of its kind online assessment system and practice platform to meet needs of

Students, Teachers, Parents,
Schools , Colleges, Universities , Academic Institutions
Classroom based Coaching Classes

Students :

Online  site for formative and summative assessment helps students

In monitoring own performance on knowledge, skills, time management etc
Learning to be critique of own knowledge and understanding
Learning to take full responsibilities of the performance
Learning about shortcomings and initiate steps for improvement
Learning from mistakes and improving on them
Learning about topics not covered or covered inadequately
Benching marking your performance with peers and achievers

Objective assessment is becoming more popular as they are easier to administer, a large area of subjects/topics can be covered and can be assessed in small time. In addition the chances of errors on account of handwriting etc are also eliminated.

In objective assessment multiple choice questions are most popular although true/false, multiple response, fill-in-blanks and matching are also used in some exams.

In past few years responses of objective assessment are recorded on machine readable forms and as such results are drawn more quickly and accurately.

Recently dramatic increase in usage of Computers and internet has supported increased use of online assessment using objective questions

Online testing broadly is aassessment by using information technology. This generally is also called as e- assessment.

The assessment can be based on a criteria or can be general i.e without any specific criteria such as IQ tests.

Most of exams which have specific syllabus assess students based on a certain criteria where questions are drawn from specific areas (say physics, chemistry, mathematics etc), the questions are of certain type (say multiple choice, multiple response etc) the questions are of a certain level of difficulty, the questions are to be answered in some given time and there is a criteria to allocate marks/grade for correct/incorrect responses and questions not attempted. Testbag is currently catering to such type of assessments using multiple choice questions (which is most popular form of objective assessment).

Formative Assessment

Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go next, and how best to get them there

Classroom assessments can include a wide range of options — from recording anecdotal notes while observing a student to administering standardized tests. The options can be roughly divided into two categories — formative assessments and summative assessments.

Formative Assessment is Assessment where each learner is  assessed on continuous basis. These are mainly teacher directed or  self assessments which each individual takes on continuous basis Formative Assessments  is the use of day-to-day, often informal, assessments to explore learner’s  understanding so that the teacher can best decide how to help them to develop that understanding

Formative assessment are used to identify gap between learner’s current status and desired goal or target  to improve instructional methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process. For example, if a teacher observes that some students do not grasp a concept, teacher can design a review activity or use a different instructional strategy.

Formative assessment is the means to identify the “gap” between a learner’s current status and the desired goal.  Different students will have different “gaps”

Key Elements of Formative Assessments

1. The identification by teachers & learners of learning goals, intentions or outcomes and criteria for achieving these.
2. Rich conversations between teachers & students that continually build and go deeper.
3. The provision of effective, timely feedback to enable students to advance their learning.
4. The active involvement of students in their own learning.
5. Teachers responding to identified learning needs and strengths by modifying their teaching approach(es).

Effective Formative Assessment

Formative assessments can be quite effective with following attributes

Define, Share, Clarify and Understand Learning Goals and Criteria for Success

Learning goals and criteria for success should be clearly identified and communicated to students.

Pupils cannot take more responsibility for their own learning unless they know what they are expected to learn and how they will know that they have been successful.

To help promote effective self-assessment, teachers need to go beyond simply telling pupils what to do and how to do it (the task or activity) and making clear what is to be learned (the learning intention or objective) and how to recognise success (the success criteria)

• In the formative assessment model, teachers are responsible for identifying and communicating instructional goals to students in order to help them achieve intended learning outcomes.
• Teachers should also communicate these goals in learner-friendly language, so students can understand and participate in the completion of these goals.
• There are a number of ways teachers can begin the process of clarifying and sharing learning goals and success criteria. Many teachers specify the learning goals for the lesson at the beginning of the lesson, but in doing so, many teachers fail to distinguish between the learning goals and the activities that will lead to the required learning. When teachers start from what it is they want students to know and design their instruction backward from that goal, then instruction is far more likely to be effective (Wiggins and McTighe 2000).
• Wiggins and McTighe also advocate a two-stage process of first clarifying the learning goals themselves (what is worthy and requiring understanding?), which is then followed by establishing success criteria (what would count as evidence of understanding?). Only then should the teacher move on to exploring activities that will lead to the required understanding.

Learning Progressions

Learning progressions should clearly articulate the sub-goals of the ultimate learning goal.

• • • These learning progressions show the course students should follow to achieve goals within the “big picture” of the discipline.
    • Teachers should help students set short-term goals within these learning progressions in order to track progress.

Descriptive Feedback

Students should be provided with evidence-based feedback that is linked to the intended instructional outcomes and criteria for success.

• • • “Descriptive feedback should be about the particular qualities of student learning with discussion or suggestions about what the student can do to improve.”
    • Feedback should be learner-specific and answer the questions above.
    • The research on feedback shows that much of the feedback that students receive has, at best, no impact on learning and can actually be counterproductive. The principal feature of these studies was that feedback was, in the psychological jargon, “ego-involving.” In other words, the feedback focused attention on the person rather than on the quality of the work by giving scores, grades, or other forms of report that encouraged comparison with others. The studies where feedback was most effective were those in which the feedback told participants not just what to do to improve but also how to go about it
    • The important point is that after receiving the feedback, besides “putting the ball back in the students’ court,” the teacher also needs to set aside time for students to read, respond to, and act on feedback.

Self- and Peer-Assessment

Both self- and peer-assessment are important for providing students an opportunity to think metacognitively about their learning

Self- Assessment – Activating students as owners of their own learning

When teachers are told they are responsible for making sure that their students do well, the quality of their teaching deteriorates, as does their students’ learning (Deci et al. 1982). In contrast, when students take an active part in monitoring and regulating their learning, then the rate of their learning is dramatically increased. Indeed, it is common to find studies in which the rate of students’ learning is doubled, so that students learn in six months what students in control groups take a year to learn (Fontana and Fernandes 1994; Mevarech and Kramarski 1997).

• • • Teachers must assist students in the development of metacognitive thinking about their own learning. This enables students to take responsibility for learning and evaluating their own progress in the learning process.
    • Teachers should provide opportunities and instruction that models how students can participate in this reflective process for meaningful and constructive feedback.
    • Student- and peer-assessment should not be used in the formal grading process.

Peer-Assessment – Activating students as learning resources for one another

Slavin, Hurley, and Chamberlain (2003) have shown that activating students as learning resources for one another produces some of the largest gains seen in any educational interventions, provided two conditions are met. The first is that the learning environment must provide for group goals, so that students are working as a group instead of just working in a group. The second condition is individual accountability, so that each student is responsible for his or her contribution to the group, so there can be no “passengers.”

• • • To learn effectively, pupils require good quality, continuous feedback, tailored to the pupils’ individual needs. If the source of all the feedback in a classroom is the teacher, there will inevitably be bottlenecks in this provision. Providing learners with the framework and skills for peer and self-assessment reduces the burden on the teacher.

• • • Peer and self-assessment promotes metacognition in learners. It helps them to develop a deeper awareness of how they learn and this promotes better learning.
  • • Research shows that pupil assessment can be more effective than traditional teacher-based marking. Pupils often listen more actively to the observations of learning partners and accord higher status to their evaluations.

Collaboration

A classroom culture in which teachers and students are partners in learning should be established.

• • • Teachers must create an environment where students feel that they are partners in the learning process.
    • The teacher should establish trust and mutual respectful spaces where all students feel safe to provide constructive feedback.

Assessment encourages collaboration among students while they are learning. To achieve this collaboration, the learning goals and success criteria must be accessible to the students and the teacher must support the students as they learn how to help one another improve their work
References

• 1. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)  –  “Five Attributes of Effective Formative Assessment”  (http://www.ccsso.org)
  2. Inside the Black Box – Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam
  3. Learning and Teaching Scotland  (http://www.ltscotland.org.uk)
  4. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics  – Five “Key Strategies” for Effective Formative Assessment (http://www.nctm.org)
  5. Formative assessment – By Heather Coffey (http://www.learnnc.org)
  6. Marking in Formative AssessmentsFormative Assessments are more central to individual learning during instructional phase than comparing achievements of students after instructional phase is over. As such grading students during formative assessments can be counterproductiveBut this should not inhibit from allocating marks to questions in formative assessments as they are yardsticks to measure individual performance and not for comparison. Further today technology provides for self assessments to be so much individual that peer comparison can be avoided.Marking makes it easier for technology to monitor progress over a period of time as compared to just subjective remarks.However more important than marking is to effectively use assessment feedback to be used as guidance for improvements.
  7. Formative Vs Summative AssesmentSummative assessments are typically used to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs and services at the end of an academic year or at a pre-determined time. The goal of summative assessments is to make a judgment of student competency after an instructional phase is complete. For example, CBSE exam is administered once a year — it is a summative assessment to determine each student’s ability at pre-determined points in time. Summative evaluations are used to determine if students have mastered specific competencies and to identify instructional areas that need additional attention.
     

     Formative Assessment	Summative Assessment
     Daily assessment on each topic or key concept studied	Assessment after a specified period or end of academic session
     The feedback is used identify gaps in knowledge or areas not adequately covered	Grading used to promote to student to next class or admission in higher courses
     Mainly Self Assessment or sometimes Teacher adminstered	Mainly a exam administered by school, college, university

     Garden Analogy

     If we think of our students as plants

     Summative assessment of the plants is the process of simply measuring them. It might be interesting to compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves, these do not affect the growth of the plants.

     Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs – directly affecting their growth

Summative Assessments – Assessment of Learning

Challenges

What Challenges do

You jump a two feet wall daily with ease as do many others

I increase the height of wall by ¼ th of foot. You will still be able to jump it with some difficulty. Few days later you will be jumping this wall with ease

I keep increasing the height of wall slowly and you are repeating the process

Few months later, you are jumping three and a half foot wall with ease

Had I increased the height of wall by one and half foot on first day itself, what would have happened ?

Challenges motivate you to excel
But let us do it step by step

Why Shall I Assess Myself?

Self Assessment in education

Self assessment in education involves a process where students can make judgement or becritique of self knowledge and self understanding . After studying a particularsubject or topic or preparing for a whole year, few obvious questions in student’s mind are

Have I understood what I studied ?

Is my understanding adequate ?

Have I covered enough in this subject/topic ?

Is my knowledge adequate for the test?

Can I complete the test in time ?

What is effect of negative marking pattern while attempting a test?

Self Assessment is extremely useful

• in monitoring your own performance on knowledge, skills, time management etc

• learning to be critique of your own knowledge and understanding

• learning to take full responsibilities of your performance

• learning about your shortcomings and initiate steps for improvement

• learning from you mistakes and improving on them

• learning about topics you have not covered or covered inadequately

• learning where you stand vis-a-vis your peers in this competitive world of education

Self Assessment is not in Isolation

Self assessment is important in relation to teachers and mentors as their teaching has lot of influence on student. Assessment feedback to teachers and mentors on their student will inform them on his performance and mistakes. It will be effective tool to discern strengths and weakness of student and can help in initiating planned actions in improvement of shortcomings and monitor same for progress Self assessment in relation to peer assessment is important because in competitions its not important how much you know but it’s important how much you know ‘more’ than others

Remember learning can be effectively undertaken

When you understand what is known to you What remains to be known And initiate steps to bridge the gap .

How to self assess with TestBag ?

Self Assessment is easy

Self Assessment refers to a comprehensive, systematic and regular review one’s own knowledge . Its help in bridging gap between teaching and learning , in understanding what is known to you and what remains to be known in a subject, topic or keyword It also gives you idea of gaps required to be covered particularly in model tests whether the gaps are in knowledge, understanding, time management or handling negative marks. Further keeping previous cut offs in view the user gets some idea of where is he standing vis-a-vis expectations.

Taking TestBag help to Assess yourself is very easy. However it should be done regularly and results are reviewed with teacher/mentors to understand gaps and initiate steps to improve

Some Examples subject wise

Biology : Say you are a 11th or 12th class student and the subject being taught to you taught to you today is
Cell Structure. Kindly remain attentive in the class and try not only to listen but understand what is being conveyed. Jot down only some important points which you need to remember.In the evening at home , logon to www.testbag.com, select cell structure within Biology – General Biology-Cell biology (this is a tree structure) . Once the Topic Selected is ‘Cell Structure’ , select question type as ‘Any’ or ‘Multiple choice’ as the case may be . Type number of questions required say as ’15’ question per page as ’15’ (keeping your convenience in view) . Select level of difficulty as ‘medium’ (recommended difficulty level for 11th and 12th Class), allocate time in minutes to complete the test say ’10’ (as per your need but keep competitive time to make test meaningful) and then allocate marks for correct answers, incorrect answers and questions not attempted (as per your need but keep them competitive)Thereafter Click button ‘ Check Availability before Test’ . You will get a suitable response whether the test is available or not as per your selection criteria. In addition there will be information on total number of questions available . (This is to indicate that if there are good number of questions , you can retake the test after completing the first on same selection criteria and in all chances you will get a new set of questions in second, third test and so on.) Close the windowThen start test by clicking ‘Start Test’ button . The test will start immediately with questions as per selection criteria. On the top of the test would be a time watch monitoring time spent on the test. The test will stop on completion of time . On completion of test, click button ‘Submit’. The test results with all relevant details will be displayedThe results are also stored in Test History. Kindly analyse questions where you have gone wrong. If you are not able to understand or that particular area has not been covered during teaching, please discuss same with your teacher/mentor. Thereafter you can take another test on same topicIf there is any ambiguity or may be a mistake, please refer to us by filling in details in feedback and mentioning Item ID of question under reference along with your User ID and email to enable us to respond backInstead of selecting a topic, you can simply input a keyword say ‘mitochondria’ follow the steps as written above, check availability and take a test to assess you understanding on mitochondriaOnce the exams are near you can start taking Model Tests on Biology to understand gaps in knowledge, improve time management and develop skill in handling questions when there is negative marking by keep practicing on various combinations. For example you can attempt all questions and see result, second time avoid questions you don’t know and see results, third time attempt questions you know partially ad are doing a near guess. This are few indicative methods. You can build your own suitable criteria . Analyse yourself and discuss shortcomings with other to seek valueable information to improve furtherIf there paucity of time you can create and take tests even on default values set in selection criteria

You can work in similar way on

Physics

Chemistry

Mathematics : However keywords will not be available in Mathematics

Second Example : English

In English say you want to assess you vocabulary of synonyms of alphabet ‘A’ . Go to English-English Vocabulary-Synonyms and select ‘Synonyms with Alphabet A’ Once selected , choose selection criteria as mentioned above . Remember in English Grammar, there is no point in choosing difficulty level ‘medium’ or ‘hard’ as most of questions across most of exams are of difficulty level ‘easy’ and as such your selection criteria will show positive results if you difficulty level is either ‘any’ or ‘easy’ . Again instead of selecting ‘Synonyms with Alphabet A’ if you will select only ‘Synonyms’, (In tree structure ‘Synonyms’ will come first then ‘Synonyms with Alphabet A’) the test will be created taking questions from all alphabets Similarly you can assess yourself in area of English Proficiency and English Usage etc.

SUBJECTS TOPICS

TestBag covers wide range of Subjects, Topics within the subjects, Subtopics within topics and so on . In all subjects it is our endeavour to cover all topics and subtopics pertaining to that subject. In most of subjects we have been able to cover all topics and subtopics as in Biology, Botany, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics etc

Although subjects covers questions from most of main topics, topics, subtopics but only those main topics, topics and subtopics are displayed here which has sufficient number of questions (say 50 or more questions)

For example in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Zoology, Botany etc nearly all important topics and subtopics are displayed but in General Mental Ability , the topics displayed are Verbal Tests and Reasoning Tests within Verbal Tests and within Reasoning Tests the subtopics displayed are
ANALOGY TEST, CLASSIFICATION TEST, CODING DECODING TEST, SERIES TEST and RELATIONSHIP TESTS.

This does not means that questions from other subtopics such as DIRECTION AND DISTANCE TEST, LINEAR ARRANGEMENT TEST, ALPHABET TEST etc are not available. They are available but are not in sufficient number to be displayed as separate subtopic. However if User will select Reasoning Test in self test creation, he will get random questions from these subtopics also besides other subtopics for assessment. In future it will be our endeavour to display them also as separate subtopics

Further, Questions in test creation are randomly selected from subjects, main topics, topics, subtopics in a hierarchical manner. Subject will have more questions than main topics and main topics will have more questions than topics and so on. Test creation in subject ( say Physics) will be randomly from all questions in the subject (including topics and subtopics not displayed), all displayed topics and subtopics . However test creation in topics will cover questions only from the said topic and its subtopics (including its subtopics not displayed).

• Most of the questions types are multiple choice.

• Some of the Questions are following types :
  • Multiple choice (5 options)
  • Multiple Choice Assetion Reason
  • Multiple Choice Matching Type
  • Selection Type
  • Multiple Response
  • Multiple Response Matching Type (Matrix)
  • Common Data (linked comprehension type) Common Data (5 options)
  • Integer Type
  • True and False Type and Fill in Blanks

As the site is evolving, users are requested to provide feedback to enable us to further increase questions type in specific topics.

Level of Questions

In TestBag the questions are of four levels – L1, L2, L3 and L4. There can be questions of all four levels /only three levels / only two levels / or single level in a subject/ topic/ subtopic or keyword

In all subjects (except General Topics* and English ) the level of questions meets following criteria

L1 – Questions for students of class IX and X ( Secondary or Matric class)

L2 – Questions for students of class XI and XII ( Senior Secondary class)

L3 – Questions for students of Graduation -Under Graduation (UG) or Post Graduation (PG) or equivalent disciplines

L4 – Questions for Professionals in their disciplines – bankers, insurers, doctors, chartered accountants etc. In these fields, there are topics which are field specific and are generally not taught in main stream classes (i.e from IX till Graduation). However in cases where main stream topics are also included in professional subjects, TestBag follows usual classification i.e L1, L2, L3 as the case may be for the particular topic/subject . For illustration – In banking questions on topic ‘risk management’ will be of level L4 but in topic ‘Accounting’ the questions will be L1, L2 or L3 as the case may be because ‘Accounting’ is also taught main stream classess

In case of General Topics and English although most of questions are GL1 and few are GL2 but they are not representative of class IXth , Xth., XIth or XIIth. For convenience of users, TestBag has following criteria for level of questions in General Topics and English

GL1 – Questions commonly asked in General Topics and English in competitive exams after schooling such as clerical cadre exams, NDA etc

GL2 – Questions commonly asked in General Topics and English in competitive exams after graduation such as CAT, MAT, Bank PO, IAS etc

Select option ‘Any’ will select questions randomly from all four levels

Kindly Note :- Level of questions in knowledge pool for the subject topic keyword reflect ground realities. For example most of the question in English Grammar will be L1 as grammar is normally taught upto Xth standard only. Questions for Calculus would mainly be L2 or above as most of the Calculus is taught from XIth and XIIth standard onwards. Similarly most of questions on keyword ‘Mitochondria’ in Cell Biology would be L2 and above and as Mitocohondria is mainly taught in XIth, XIIth and graduation. Again questions on subject topics or keyword which are taught in graduation would be L3. As such searching questions on these topics in L1 or L2 will give Nil results.

Experience

Experience: First hand knowledge by direct participationYou are visiting a new town abroad for first time. A sense of uncertainty prevails
Visiting same town again. The confidence has grown. That’s what experience do- put fears to rest.Learning from text book is one thing

But sitting in exam is otherTextbook is in your hand and you feel itExam will happen only once.Few unrelated areas not spelt in text book – time management, nervousness,
impact of negative mark, benchmarking can make differenceExam will happen once but can be simulated earlier to gain experienceExperience generates confidence and will put many doubts and fears to rest