Assesments I remember from middle school

8th grade Science and Religion teacher, Mrs.Liebauc, had the very most memorable tests. It is sad to say, but they are memorable because of how hilariously easy they were. Don't get me wrong, we learned a lot in Mrs. Liebauc's classes. The easiness of her test is really as much of a testament to the fact that she was getting us to learn and remember things, as it was to the fact that she was a bit of a push over. I mean that in the nicest way!
Its just that she drilled us, gave us mnemonic devices, and was obsessively repetitive. We definitely knew exactly what would be on her tests. Then, even though every student was probably accidentally dreaming about all the information while they slept (that was how good we knew it) Mrs. Liebauc still seemed rather stressed out that we might not know everything that we were suppose to know. During the actual tests, she would actually give us clues as we were answering the questions. She always administered tests orally. She would give us blank paper, then ask questions, and we would write the answers. She would walk around the room (elementary-school-teacher-giving-a-spelling-test style) and ask the question, repeating herself several times, then she would pause, and sometimes give us hints. Example: "Name the colors in a prism....Remember children: ROYGBIV...ROYGBIV!" Like we really needed that reminder.
But seriously, like I said in a previous blog, I still remember a ton of that stuff! I probably remember more from Mrs. Liebauc's classes than any of my other middle school classes. And I'd like to think that I could still ace one of her tests!
I think the most difficult tests were my math tests. It always seemed that even if I totally understood the concepts that I was being tested on, I would make one small accidental mistake, and end up with the wrong answer on at least a couple of problems. The good thing was that my teacher had us show the work on our test paper or a sheet of scrap paper, and if we made some little error, and ended up with the wrong answer, we would still get credit for the rest of the problem. I was always a big-picture person. The attention to detail needed in Math was a skill that didn't come naturally.
The most meaningful tests were the short answer and essay tests that were common in Literature and Social Studies. They were sometimes more work to study for, but I always liked essay tests, and generally did really well on them.
As you can see, assessment in my middle school was usually a test. That was nearly 20 years ago, and more creative assessments were not as common then. We certainly had oral presentation and projects and such, but they were not really considered assessments. Every major unit had some kind of test at the end of it. The other things were extra. They did not replace testing.