Information for teachers about how to use smart-tests

Smart-tests are for formative assessment

Smart-tests are for formative assessment: they are designed to inform your teaching, and so they are used as part of planning and teaching a topic. A few smart-tests test skills, but more often they identify how students are thinking about each topic. Smart-test diagnoses will enable you to target remedial teaching where it is needed. They can identify students whose understanding is already good, who can move on to something else. They can show you the range of different item types that your teaching should include. In most aspects of learning maths, there are central ideas which have to be applied in increasingly complex ways, which need to be taught and assessed.

Smart-tests do not replace normal end-of-topic or end-of-term tests, but they complement them. Smart-tests are best administered to students prior to beginning a topic in class, so you can use the results for planning. Some smart-tests have a pre-test and a post-test version. Comparing students' results can be used to gauge the effectiveness of your program. Because smart-tests target very specific learning, they do not give an overall picture of where a student is "up to in maths" but instead they tell the teacher what needs to be taught.

Equipment Required

Teachers: The teacher needs an email address to register and checks the results on the internet.

Students: Students can do smart-tests at any time and in any location suitable to you: all at once in a computer lab, successively using a couple of classroom computers,at home for homework, a few at a time in the school library – any arrangement will work. All students need is internet access and a computer. The teacher needs an email address to register.

Computer information: The smart-tests have been carefully tested with the browsers Internet Explorer and Mozilla on PC machines. Please email us if you find difficulty with other browsers. The tests do not generate much internet traffic and so they do not put a heavy load on the school network. However if your students pay for internet access you will need to ensure that students have an internet credit of at least 3 cents (estimate for Victoria, 2011).

Tablets, i-pads and smart phones: Many smart-tests work on a 'tablet' device such as an i-pad. The exception is tests which contain 'drag-drop' items. Smart-tests are not optimised for very small screens, so smart phones are not recommended.

How to choose a smart-test, use it with students and access results

Choosing

Click here or on the link on the front page to see an index of available smart-tests.
Select a smart-test and then you can see details about content of that test, year levels at which it is commonly used, the diagnostic report and a sample question. There is also a star rating to indicate how well polished the test is now. We especially want feedback from you on less polished tests.
If you don't want to use that smart-test, continue browsing.
If you want to use it, click the button labelled ‘request access to the quiz’. This gives you a form to record details including your email address.
You will immediately receive by email the access details ("a password") for yourself and your students.

Using with students and accessing results - basic instructions

Students need to be told

the web address to access a test www.smartvic.com/test
the password for the test that has been emailed to their teacher.

Students need to enter their name – this information is only for the teacher to identify their results. First name and initial may be sufficient for you. Each student's results can be accessed by the teacher as soon as the student has finished the test. Most teachers wait until the whole class has finished the test. If you have multiple classes. ask students to start their family name with the name of their class (e.g. 7ASm for Sue Smith in class 7A). In this way, the results can easily be sorted into your class groups.

Instructions - detailed

This information is also provided in the email sent to you on registering for a test.

To take the test, your students should:

go to www.smartvic.com/test
enter first and last name (this is only for you to identify them – we do not need this) at the top right hand corner
enter the test code emailed to you on registration
select their school year level (this information is for us to improve the tests)
look at the sample items to see how they should answer
work through the test, question by question
be sure to press the “submit all and finish” button when they have finished.

Results of the test will be available to you as soon as the students finish, when you:

go to www.smartvic.com/smart
at the top right hand corner, login with user name and password (given in the email)
follow the instructions that appear when you click on the tab “My quizzes”.

Students' results are linked to the email address that registered for the password. They are not available to others.

The smart-test can be reused with this password whenever you like, or a new password can be obtained for it. You can also switch on or off the test availability for students when you wish. You can export the results to a spreadsheet for your own analysis and reorganisation, by clicking on the "export" button that appears below the results.

Full explanations of the diagnoses together with teaching suggestions for each stage appear below the results.

Note: The aspect ratio of the screen resolution impacts on the shape of some diagrams in some geometry smart-tests, causing errors of diagnosis. This possibility is flagged at the beginning of affected tests. Teachers should check this, and not use the smart-test if it is a problem at your school.