“There is a surprise quiz, prepare a sheet of paper.”

For some learners, this statement is bound to stimulate panic. Surprise quizzes, unlike normal tests and quizzes, are directed without advisory to unwary students. Though there may be teachers out there who allot surprise quizzes just for the quality of being original, most teachers use them to keep students on task by pushing them to constantly study in the incident of a surprise quiz. Unfortunately, regardless of the intents behind them, surprise quizzes result in stress and panic, while other similar replacements can still produce the envisioned benefits.

Stress is common and, to a definite degree, can even be advantageous for high school students, but no student should ever distress going to class or feel anxious to comprehend ideas straightaway. Moreover, surprise quizzes, specifically those that examine concepts imparted the similar day of or two days prior the quiz, favor those who grasp teachings more rapidly over those who absorb slower but placed in the work to eventually acquire the conceptions.

The purpose of creating quizzes “surprise” is to give learners an incentive to stay up to date with class content by spacing out their studying, a psychological phenomenon known as the spacing effect. This way, a student will not end up cramming in a unit’s worth of knowledge the night before a test. Spacing out material can help students retain material.

The idea behind surprise quizzes is sensible, since many students struggle with spacing out their studying. However, this attempt to help students study more efficiently falls short of its goal. Students do not change methods of studying just because they know there was a possibility of a surprise quiz. In fact, because surprise quizzes are not set in stone, the unpredictability deterred students from studying.

In addition to not fulfilling their purpose, surprise quizzes present logistical problems for both teachers. Because students cannot prepare for them ahead of time, instances of cheating increase significantly as many students feel that they are not prepared to take the quiz on their own merit.

To truly help students space out their studying, there are better methods. On top of homework, which is already meant to help students study every day by reinforcing the concepts taught in class, measures such as benchmark quizzes require students to space out studying without the additional stress and temptation to cheat. The benchmark quiz system means teachers have a scheduled quiz every day that tests students on the material learned the class before. Unlike surprise quizzes, these short quizzes are announced and can be retaken until students get full credit. With this system, students can feel more prepared by studying for a quiz that they know is coming, and they also have no incentive to cheat since they can retake the quiz.

Should implementing the benchmark quiz system be too much trouble or too difficult, regular quizzes also suffice. Quizzes that get spaced out still push students to study, just without the negative consequences.

Surprise quizzes fail to essentially carry out the spacing effect, and instead, prompt a range of deleterious effects on students. If stress and cheating are the outcomes of this education tool, a tool that can effortlessly be interchanged with more favorable approaches, then surprise quizzes should no longer be an option.