Comparing and Contrasting Different Forms of Assessment

Each formal assessment has specific criteria used in interpretation and scoring which are always unique. It is the type of assessment used in schools to compare the abilities of students with their peers as well as student’s strengths and weaknesses. Some of the examples include standardized tests, essay tests and, criterion-referenced tests (Cox et al, 2014). On the other hand, unlike formal assessment which is based on tests, informal assessment entails the assessment of students’ behavior through the activities they participate in within the school’s compound. It assists teachers to evaluate and come up with a conclusion through judging how a certain student relates to their peers. Though, this is not the case with informal assessment since there are no laid requirements or any particular grading provided by the institute to assess the students’ informally.

The levels of assessment are core on any platform. They can be done at different stages which include individual stages, group stages or both. In informal assessment individualism and self-reliance is encouraged so as to assess the levels of understanding at individual levels whereas assessment is done totally different in informal assessment. Assessments can be done in group work in order to boost the skills of teamwork or an individual basis depending on the activity in progress. Additionally, both of them are aimed at improving the students’ performance. Due to the fact that teachers can determine the weakness of the student, they can use their knowledge to coach the student how to improve them to their strengths. Moreover, both of them are time-consuming.