10 Habits for the new year
10 Habits for 2026
In the December newsletter and following a Virtual Think-In on assessments I wrote the following list of 10 assessment habits I'd like to make happen this year relating to assessment. The idea is that habits can make small differences without too much input and that these differences accumulate over time!
1. Give reading time before an end of unit test - students might be more likely to use it wisely with practice.
2. Try, once a week to give students a timed exam question - roughly a mark a minute - to help them practise time management.
3. Be consistent with rounding in all questions and worked examples. Try to limit rounding along the way. These habits will stick if used all the time.
4. Don't underestimate issues with units - this might be presumed in one sense, but units still cause problems.
5. Demonstrate and exemplify the working out and setting out we want our students to be capable of so they can get all the benefits for their own thinking and method marks. This can be tricky on large boards, but it will be worth it. Make sure we reward it in assessments too.
6. Terminology - often our work as teachers is about breaking down the meanings of terms. Once this is done, though, it's important to keep using the same terminology students are expected to know and use.
7. Notation - again, this seems obvious, but examiners' reports talk about things that students didn't appear to recognise. We must regularly use the notation students are expected to understand.
8. Command terms - make sure we are using these accurately throughout the course so students learn the meanings clearly and know how to react accordingly. Maybe a display! There is a glossary in the guide.
9. Have formula booklets around all the time in class
10. Know thy GDC! Speaks for itself, but must not be underestimated.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and perhaps I'll refine it, edit it and turn it into a page on the website to go with this one about Exam Advice, but it's a start - hope you find something useful.