Reflecting on Exams
Mike Simpson
Secondary School Principal
May 12, 2023
Our Grade 9 and 10 students have now finished their final exams and will be reflecting on them next week. Our Grade 11 students will be finished on Tuesday.
Reflection is a very important part of the learning process. We often learn more from processing experiences than the experiences themselves.
Exams reflections will focus on the four purposes of exams (see below for an explanation of these purposes):
Experience: Students will reflect on the experience of sitting exams. How did it feel? How did we manage our time? How did we approach different types of questions? What can we learn from this experience to prepare for future exams?
Technique: Students will reflect on how they prepared for exams. How did we study? How did we prepare for different types of questions? What can we learn from this experience to better prepare for exams in the future?
Review: Students will reflect on the skills and knowledge covered in the exams. This is a chance to revise previously taught skills and knowledge and address any misunderstandings.
Data: Students will reflect on their performance on the exams. Exam results add to data collected throughout the year to give students a fair and accurate idea of what they need to focus on to keep growing academically. Academic progress depends on students having a fair and accurate understanding of their performance and it is important that students reflect on this with their teachers.
Learning does not stop for our High School students once they have finished their exams! Regular classes will continue right up until the end of the year.
Three days is set aside for Grade 9 and 10 students to complete service learning projects that have been planned by our students throughout the year. These projects will serve our ISY community and Chinthe Fund Project Partners.
In preparation for their senior year, our Grade 11 students will be attending an IB Diploma Retreat on May 24-26.
Our Middle School students will also be busy right up until June 9 when we finish for the year. On Tuesday, June 6, we will have our Middle School iMPACT Festival. This year’s student developed festival theme is ‘With greater consumption, comes greater responsibility.’ In the lead up to this festival, students will be investigating the iMPACT of how we consume media, food, fashion, and more. Students will develop plans of action to promote positive and sustainable consumption that will be presented to the community on June 6.
As they develop their action plans, students will hear from outside experts, visit organizations who are making a positive impact in these areas, and attend workshops to learn key skills in collaboration, public speaking and presentation, statistical collection, analysis, and presentation, research, and project planning. They will also be involved in design and physical challenges to build confidence and teamwork, and extend their thinking.
It is a busy end to a busy year!
Secondary School Events
This week:
IB Diploma Final Exams
Mon, May 15: Grade 11 Exams
Tues, May 16: Grade 11 Exams
Coming up:
- May 22-26: Grade 11 & 12 Retreats
- May 27: High School Prom
- May 30: Grade 12 Graduation
- June 6: Middle School Impact Festival
- June 7: Semester 2 Reports available on Powerschool
- June 9: Last Day of School (11:30am finish)
Counselor Weekly Newsletter
Every week, Mr. A-G, our High School Conselor, provides our High School students with a weekly update. This update provides students with information about a variety of topics including college and university application processes.
Mischievous Genius Maki’s Tickle Tale
Being Sun Smart
It looks like the rain is coming but when the sun is out, we are strongly encouraging our Secondary School students to bring a hat to wear when they are outside. Many of our students report that they use sunscreen which is great and we strongly encourage all students to use it and bring it to school so they can apply it before they go outside. Students should also be bringing a water bottle to keep hydrated during the day.
Electronic Collection
One of our Grade 5 students collecting old electronic devices for recycling e.g. mobile phones and computers. This is part of his ComPassion project. He is doing SDG#7, ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’. The items donated will be taken apart by Oscar in the Maker Space at ISY and then donated locally for reuse. The donation box will be on the wooden front steps all of next week. You can find out more about his journey and his passion when the Grade 5 students present their projects on Thursday, June 1st.
Old, clean t-shirts and material wanted!
A High School student service project is making upcycled plush toys to donate to children who might not have them. The project will also teach children how to make these toys themselves. To make the toys, the project needs old, clean scrap material or clothing. Old, clean t-shirts are perfect!
Please donate your old, clean t-shirts or material by leaving them in the basket on the Front Steps.
Thank you!
Secondary School Art
High School Final Exams: Why do we do them?
Our Grade 9, 10 and 11 students will sit Final Exams in May.
Exams are one of many types of assessment that we use at ISY to develop a fair and accurate understanding of student academic achievement levels.
For an assessment to be effective in helping us develop a fair and accurate understanding of what each student understands, we must be clear in our purpose for the assessment. Here are four reasons why students in Grades 9, 10, and 11 sit Final Exams at ISY:
1. Experience: Our Grade 12 students are about to sit their final IB Diploma exams. It is important that students feel confident and capable of showing what they know in an exam. To feel confident and capable in an exam, it is important for our students, with the support of their teachers, to experience exam conditions (no talking, sitting in rows, time limits, being supervised by a proctor, etc). With the support of their teachers, students will learn that they are able to show what they know in exam conditions. After the exams, teachers will help students reflect on their exam experience to develop more confidence and capability for next time.
2. Technique: Like sport or playing a musical instrument, good exam technique is very important for students to be able to show what they are capable of. Students also feel more confident going into an exam if they know they have good techniques to study for and sit exams. Our teachers have studied and will share with students the following proven study techniques summarized in this Strengthening the Student Toolbox article:
- Practice testing: self-testing or taking practice tests on material to be tested in the exam.
- Distributed practice: making a schedule of study that spreads out different subjects or study activities over time.
- Interleaved practice: making a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of problems or questions in one study session.
- Self-explanation: explaining to yourself (or another person) how to use what you know to answer a question or solve a problem.
Learning techniques like these will help students develop a study timetable that works for them. Teachers will also tell students what type of questions they can expect on the exams and share techniques that will help answer them.
3. Review: Exams provide an opportunity to review previously taught skills and knowledge that teachers have identified as important to consolidate for students to build on next year.
4. Data: To develop a fair and accurate assessment of a student’s academic achievement level, teachers use data from different assessments throughout the year. As students learn to sit exams, it is important for students to understand that a Final Exam is just one assessment that teachers gather data from to understand what their academic achievement level is. The grade on the Semester 2 report card comes from assessment data gathered throughout the year. A disappointing exam result at the end of the year does not cancel out what the student has proven they are capable of in earlier assessments. A High School Final Exam is in no way an ‘all or nothing’ assessment.
The International School Yangon
20 Shwe Taungyar Street
Bahan Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95 (0) 9 880 441 040