Scroll down for copies of exam review guides, exams and essays.

The most important grades students earn are those which really measure what they know. There is an examination and an essay each month. Here are examinations, review guides, and essay topics we have had. Please note that the pace is slightly different each year, so the exams are not the same each year. Scroll down for copies of this year's exam review guides, exams, and essay topics.

Examinations measure what students know of the material taught in the month since the last exam. 7th grade exams are mostly multiple-choice with some short response. This gradually gives way to mostly short response exams in 8th grade and all short response exams in 9th grade. The philosophy behind this sort of scheme is that short response questions, when designed properly, access higher level thinking skills and recall, both things I want to measure. Low level recall and comprehension are measured on quizzes.

A review guide is distributed a week or more in advance. For 7th and 8th graders, this review guide includes a sampling of short response questions that could be asked. For 9th grade, this review guide provides questions that may be asked on the test. Ninth grade exams are usually 7 short response questions.

A few important policy notes:

• Students who are absent for 2 or more days of instruction on material required for the exam may postpone the exam.
• Students who are absent for the review class must still take exams.
• Students who lose their review guides or who did not receive one because of absence will be required to take the exams on time with everyone else.
• Students who do not have internet to practice test questions still have to take the exams with everyone else.

Essays are done once per month (shorter writing tasks are also common). Sometimes these are Document Based Questions. Sometimes these are thematic essays as described below. These are formal tests of knowledge. The essay topic is distributed a week in advance. Students are expected to come having learned the material for the essay. Although the essay comes from class work, it is supposed to represent the student's own thoughts, so answers for the essay test will not be fed to students.

2007-2008 Exams and Essays

2006-2007 Exams and Essays