Summative Assessment – tasks or activities that produce a grade. At YSJ, you will be presented with an assessment brief that will clearly indicate to you what you need to do (the assessment description), which learning outcomes you need to demonstrate, and the standards on which you will be assessed represented as the Assessment Marking Criteria.
Formative Assessment – tasks or activities that do not produce a grade. These are the opportunities to practice and gather feedback. Your tutors will use formative activities (assessments) as part of workshops, seminars and even lectures. These activities not only help you practice your skills and refine your understandings, but will help inform and guide your tutors on how and where to help you achieve your best learning.
If we think of summative assessment as the big competition, let’s say the 100 meter sprint, then formative assessment is all the training required to compete. Like an Olympic athlete, who will train everyday to be in peak physical condition with honed skills and abilities, you must practice and refine your academic and disciplinary skills to present your full potential.
To successfully pass your summative assessments, you need to ensure that you meet the learning outcomes indicated in the assessment brief and all required aspects detailed (such as ‘using a case study method, you will analyse at least two of the theories discussed in class‘).
For you (and your tutor) to be sure that you can meet these requirements, you have to engage with formative activities. We would not be confident that we could win a 100 meter sprint just by watching YouTube videos on how to run faster. To be confident, we would need to put that learning into effect in our training.