Test Taking for Online College Students: How Exams Work in the Virtual Classroom

A: The most common mistake is treating the online test like an in-person exam. Students prepare for an in-person exam with the expectation that they have a finite amount of time to complete the test (usually the span of a class period). They study and prepare, fill out the study guide or cheat sheet if the professor allows, and come into the exam not only knowing a great deal of information but also where to find additional information if they are allowed a page of notes.

Students don’t engage in as much preparation for online exams because they fall into the trap of thinking that, because they are taking an exam online, they have time to look up answers to questions during the test. As a result, they spend a huge amount of time (which increases anxiety and apprehension) because a test isn’t usually meant to be an all-day activity. This mistake is also costly because many professors create time constraints (i.e., forced response in 60 seconds) or random order on tests and students panic if they didn’t know about the constraints in the beginning. In short, the time during the test shouldn’t be the only time students review the material and students should treat the study process in the same way they would for an in-person test. 

A: 1.) Take the time to explore which method of study works best for you. 
Are you a flashcard person? A write-out-all-the-notes person? A type-everything person? A highlight-in-the-book person? A crammer? A slow and steady? Students don’t realize that there are hundreds of effective study methods if the one or two they might know about don’t work for them. Leave enough time to try different methods to find what works. If you find that group study sessions don’t work for you, don’t keep going to them thinking that you’ll eventually get the habits down (i.e., if you’re incredibly social and use group sessions to socialize, this is unlikely to change! That’s okay, but try a new method). 

2.) Create multiple small-scale study sessions leading up to the test. 
No matter what method of study you land on, you will do better in the long run by reviewing smaller amounts of material over a longer period of time (repetition) than trying to learn and remember a semester of information the night before the exam. Multiple shorter sessions help solidify the information in more concrete ways than one large session with only one start and one review. 

3.) Keep to the regular habits that work well for you leading up to the exam, and plan for them.
If you are not a night owl, don’t try to squeeze in study sessions late at night. If you work better with proper nutrition, plan in the time to make a healthy breakfast on the morning of the exam. Students get so focused on “the test!” that they forget there is a whole ritual and routine (getting enough sleep, eating well, prayer and meditations, etc.) that they might engage in on a regular basis but that they forget to do on the day of the test. Keep healthy habits even during the stressful testing times. 

A: Most universities have facilities and resources that students can take advantage of prior to the test, like centers for teaching and learning or tutoring centers. There are some other resources available that can aid in test-taking as well. If the professor focuses on long answer or essay questions, students can take practice drafts of sample questions to the writing center to assess clarity, organization, and sometimes citation. We think of the writing center for papers, but often writing is needed for testing and students can get assistance on the method of writing alongside the content of writing that they usually think of when studying

A: This question can best be answered by having a “preoccupation with failure” mindset. What can go wrong on a test? The internet can short out, they can lose their work, they can have electricity problems, or they can have a schedule conflict when sharing the space with other remote learners in the household. If internet, Wi-Fi, and sharing are an issue, the student may want to rent a cubical in the school library or on campus so that they can be assured of stability. The bonus here is that there is documentation if the school library loses internet during a test, and the professor is likely to be more understanding. Other options might be to rent a space in a local library or publicly available space as long as there is privacy and quiet.

If students are worried about losing their work, for example on an essay test, they might ask their professor if they can write their responses on a Word document (which they can save) or a Google Doc (which automatically saves) prior to entering their response in the test format. Students also might encounter issues with some online testing services that monitor browser use (prohibit users from opening tabs or recording test-takers). Students can do their best to plan for this by requesting to test the software or technology with the professor prior to the exam (like with a sample test). This way a student can be assured that they are testing in advance and troubleshooting. There are also considerations worth mentioning, like charging devices the night before a test and repairing any computer issues in advance (like a mouse that doesn’t work or certain keys that “stick”).