My students are preparing for winter exams. As a review activity we are making our own revision questions. I set up two shared Google Docs: one for revision questions, and one for the solutions. Each student had to make up at least one revision question for everyone and add it to the first document.
Writing the questions requires an understanding of the concepts behind our topic, so this activity let me see what my students understood and how well.
Students had to say which MYP level their question was. Our upcoming exam focuses on MYP Criterion A: Knowledge and Understanding, which is graded from 0 to 8. We regularly discuss the criteria in class and so students are beginning to become familiar with the descriptions of the levels.
We had a good variety of questions added, and I circulated to encourage some students to fill holes I thought I saw. I urged some students to write harder questions. In the end, the activity is self-differentiating: each student works on problems at the exact right level. And for each student there are harder problems to stretch them, with me providing the stretch for the topmost students.
As for the solutions document, some students chose to type their mathematics using the (minimally acceptable) equation editor on Google Docs’ Insert menu. Others worked on their mini whiteboards and then took photos to upload to the document.
After students had made at least one question, I encouraged them to go on to make another, harder one or to answer the questions of their classmates. I assigned as homework to work through all the questions in preparation for our exam.
What exam preparation strategies work for you and your students?