Self-Assessment & Practice Exams

What You’ll Find Here: 3 Videos • Readiness Checks • Practice Exam Strategies • Results Analysis • Self-Check • Downloads

On This Page: Check Your Readiness | More Readiness | Build a Practice Exam | Balanced Practice | Check More | Use Your Results | Look for Patterns | Study Next | Adjusting | Quick Self-Check | Downloads | Need Help? | Choose One Action

Find Out What You Know Before Exam Day

Feeling familiar with your notes is not always the same as being ready to use the material independently. Self-assessment gives you a chance to find out what you can do on your own, what needs a little more practice, and where you may need help - while there is still time to make adjustments.

In this lesson, you will learn how to:

• Check your readiness without relying on how familiar the material feels.

• Create your own practice exam from course materials you already have.

• Look beyond a practice score to identify patterns in your mistakes.

• Decide what deserves your attention next.

• Adjust your study plan based on evidence rather than guessing.

The goal is not to prove that you know everything. The goal is to gather useful information and use it to decide what to do next.

Being ready for an exam means more than recognizing a formula or following along with a worked example. A stronger test is whether you can recognize the problem, choose a strategy, complete the work, and check your reasoning with a reasonable amount of independence.

As You Watch

Think about this question: How often do you test what you can do without your notes before deciding that you know a topic?

Try It Now

Choose three topics that may appear on your upcoming exam. For each topic:

1. Choose one representative problem.

2. Put away your notes, textbook, videos, and answer key.

3. Complete the problem on your own.

4. Check both your answer and your reasoning.

5. Label the topic:

Confident - I could solve a similar problem independently.

Almost There - I understand most of it, but I made a mistake, needed a reminder, or felt uncertain.

Needs Review - I did not know how to begin, chose the wrong strategy, or needed substantial help.

For every topic that is not yet confident, write one specific next step. Instead of saying “Study equations more,” try “Complete three equations that involve distributing a negative sign.”

One problem does not always tell the whole story. You can learn more about your understanding by checking it in several ways.

Try Different Problem Types

If a skill can appear in different forms, test more than one. Try including:

• A basic problem.

• A typical course-level problem.

• A problem presented in a different format.

• A multi-step or applied problem.

Explain the Process Aloud

Pretend you are teaching the idea to someone else. Can you explain:

• What kind of problem it is?

• How you know which strategy to use?

• What the first step should be?

• Why the method works?

• What common mistakes someone should watch for?

Try a Blank-Page Check

Without looking at your notes, write everything you remember about one topic:

• Important formulas.

• Main steps.

• A sample problem.

• Common mistakes.

• Ways to check an answer.

Then compare your page with your notes and identify what was missing.

Check Your Pace

If one problem takes much longer than expected, ask why. Was the mathematics difficult? Did you have trouble choosing a method? Did you restart several times? Were small errors slowing you down? The goal is not simply to work faster. The goal is to understand where your time is going.

Video 2 of 3: Creating a Practice Exam from Scratch

You do not need an official practice test to practice under exam-like conditions. Homework, quizzes, worksheets, textbook problems, class examples, and review materials can all become part of a useful practice exam.

As You Watch

Think about this question: If you created a practice exam for yourself, how could you make sure it represents the course instead of only including problems you already like?

VIDEO COMING SOON!!

Try It Now: Build a Mini Practice Exam

Create a practice exam with 6-10 questions. Include:

• At least three major topics.

• More than one type of problem.

• A mixture of easier, typical, and more challenging questions.

• At least one problem you previously found difficult.

• At least one problem that requires several steps or some interpretation.

Do not include the solutions on the same page. Then complete the practice exam without notes.

A useful practice exam does not need to copy the real exam exactly. It should give you a reasonable sample of the skills you may need to use.

Start With the Topics

List specific skills instead of broad chapter numbers.

Instead of writing “Chapter 5, ”write:

• Find slope from two points.

• Graph a line using slope and intercept.

• Write an equation from a graph.

• Interpret slope and intercept in context.

Include Different Levels of Difficulty

Try to include:

• Basic problems that check foundational skills.

• Typical problems that represent normal course expectations.

• A few multi-step or more challenging problems.

Avoid making every problem extremely easy—or extremely difficult.

Mix the Formats

Depending on the course, include things such as:

• Calculations.

• Equations.

• Graphs.

• Tables.

• Diagrams.

• Word problems.

• Formula problems.

• Written explanations.

• Multi-step problems.

Make the Conditions Realistic

When you take the practice exam:

• Put away notes unless they will be allowed on the real exam.

• Use only permitted tools.

• Work in a reasonably quiet environment.

• Set an appropriate time limit.

• Show your work.

• If you get stuck, mark the problem and move on rather than immediately checking the solution.

The goal is not to create stress. It is to practice making decisions independently.

After finishing your practice exam, take a short break and then check your work carefully. For every problem, ask:

• Was my answer correct?

• Was my method correct?

• Did I understand what the problem was asking?

• Did I guess?

• Did I make a small calculation error?

• Did the problem take longer than expected?

• Could I solve a similar problem again?

Then label each problem as Confident, Almost There, or Needs Review. A wrong answer can still be Almost There if your reasoning was mostly correct. A correct answer can still Need Review if you guessed or did not understand why your method worked. Your practice exam should give you information - not just a percentage.

Finishing the practice exam is only the beginning. The most useful part comes next: figuring out why mistakes happened and deciding how your remaining study time should change.

As You Watch

Think about this question: When you check practice work, do you usually look only at how many problems you missed—or do you look for patterns in why they were missed?

Try It Now

Choose three problems from a recent quiz, practice set, or practice exam:

• One you completed confidently.

• One that was almost correct.

• One that you did not understand.

For each problem, write:

• What went well?

• What caused difficulty?

• What is my next step?

Then use what you discovered to change your next study session.

One mistake may be random. Repeated mistakes can tell you something important. For missed or uncertain problems, identify the kind of difficulty you experienced. Possible categories include:

• Concept misunderstanding.

• Forgotten procedure.

• Calculation error.

• Reading or interpretation error.

• Formula error.

• Incomplete answer.

• Time-management problem.

• Copying or sign error.

Different types of mistakes need different responses. For example:

Concept misunderstanding
You may need another explanation, a visual model, a simpler example, or help from an instructor or tutor.

Forgotten procedure
Write a short step-by-step guide and practice several examples.

Calculation error
Slow down, show more intermediate work, and check signs or arithmetic.

Reading error
Underline the question, identify the known information, and write what you are looking for before calculating.

Formula error
Connect the formula to a diagram or example and practice deciding when it applies.

Time-management problem
Practice moving past difficult questions and returning to them later.

“Study everything again” is usually less useful than identifying the specific problem you need to address.

Use your three readiness categories to divide your remaining study time.

Almost There

Start here when possible. These topics often need only focused practice or correction before they become confident.

Needs Review

Choose the most important one or two topics. Ask:

• Is this likely to be a major part of the exam?

• Does it connect to other topics?

• Can I improve it independently?

• Do I need help?

Then choose a specific action.

Confident

Do not ignore these topics completely, but they usually do not need most of your remaining study time. Include a few confident topics in a later mixed review to keep them fresh.

Suppose your original plan was:

• Monday: Review Chapter 4

• Tuesday: Review Chapter 5

• Wednesday: Review everything

After completing a practice exam, you discover:

• Most of Chapter 4 is confident.

• Solving systems is almost there.

• Word problems from both chapters need review.

A better plan might become:

• Monday: Practice four systems problems, focusing on choosing a method.

• Tuesday: Take two specific word-problem questions to tutoring or office hours.

• Wednesday: Complete a six-question mixed review and correct any remaining errors.

The revised plan is more useful because it is based on what you actually need now.

Ask yourself:

• Am I practicing without notes at least some of the time?

• Am I using a mixture of topics and problem types?

• Am I checking my reasoning, not just the final answer?

• Am I identifying why mistakes happened?

• Am I noticing repeated patterns in my errors?

• Am I spending enough time on “Almost There” topics?

• Am I choosing specific next steps instead of writing “study more”?

• Am I repeating difficult problems after correcting them?

• Am I trying a similar problem to see whether the correction actually helped?

• Am I changing my study plan based on what I discover?

You do not need every answer to be “yes” today. Choose one area that would make your practice more useful and begin there.

Choose the tool that would be most useful to you right now - you do not need to use all of them.

If a practice exam shows that you are struggling with an important topic, you do not have to solve the problem by repeatedly attempting the same type of question alone.

You can:

• Bring one or two specific problems to tutoring.

• Ask your instructor to clarify a concept or method.

• Show a tutor your error analysis and ask what you should practice next.

• Ask whether the problems you selected are representative of the course.

• Review a simpler example before returning to a more difficult problem.

A useful question might sound like “I can get through the first part of these problems, but I keep getting stuck at this step. Can you help me understand what I should be thinking about here?”

Choose one:

• Complete one problem from three upcoming exam topics without notes.

• Label three topics as Confident, Almost There, or Needs Review.

• Create a six-question mini practice exam.

• Complete a short practice exam under realistic conditions.

• Analyze three problems from an old quiz.

• Identify one repeated mistake pattern.

• Redo one missed problem and then try a similar one.

• Change your next study session based on your practice results.

• Take one specific question to your instructor or tutor.

You do not need to prove that you are perfectly ready. Use practice to find your next useful step, make the adjustment, and keep moving forward.