If you don’t know already, Edrolo has built in progress checks.
Why should you care about that?
Using them effectively can both help you motivate students, and get them on the path to better results in their exams. I’m using the Edrolo progress checks - as they’re ready-made and syllabus-aligned - but you could also create your own questions and follow the same approach. To help you try this out, here’s a quick guide for using the Edrolo progress checks as part of your teaching.
What I’m outlining here is a part of how I’ve lead the Science teams at two schools to lift results, and achieve:
Most people would set the progress checks as homework - but I like to use these in class, under test conditions.
I implement a structured approach to these assessments, carefully timing them based on HSC requirements and making it clear to students, for example: "In the HSC, you are going to need to do 1.8 minutes per mark. It's a 100 mark exam. You have 180 minutes to do it."
This helps students develop realistic exam skills and time management. Coaching sport, I always say that we play like we train. The progress checks are our training for the big game in October/November. Regular progress checks also help students develop little, but crucial exam skills: How to focus, how to arrange your pens, how to have their calculator set up, how to make their working out and formula sheets help them, and how to keep track of the time. Even just not having access to their notes or peers to confirm their answers is something students need to get used to. These practical skills are often overlooked but are essential for exam success.
However I make it clear to the students there's no pressure to perform on the progress check but that they will have to perform at some point. Mistakes are okay, the mark has no impact on things like rank, the progress check is where they learn. This approach helps reduce anxiety while maintaining accountability - and builds, over time, their ability to perform better under exam conditions.
Data collection is crucial to my approach. I record students’ marks from the progress checks and I keep them in a spreadsheet. This systematic tracking allows me to monitor individual student progress and identify trends over time.
Historical data proves particularly powerful for encouraging students who might otherwise give up. As I often tell them: "I can say, okay, look, here's 30 as your Edrolo score. Let's look historically at what students who got that result got in the HSC... actually in HSC, that's going to be like a 59, maybe a 60... That's a solid pass."
Now if they can find a way to earn a few more points every time we do this - bingo, they’ll start to unlock extra marks and really see how they succeed. Add in scaling, and suddenly the low score they see in front of them is not the indicator of their overall performance they might think it is.
A student being able to see that where they are now, and where they can get to, that it isn’t the mountain they might think it is, really can help to stop them giving up early on or thinking that success is out of reach.
Using this approach, by the time they get to doing a real exam, they've had so much practice sitting down, focusing on getting all those behavioral things right... They don't have as much exam anxiety when they're coming up to these exams.
I can use the progress check results to talk to parents, particularly those anxious about their child’s results. I can say to parents, actually 60% - that's above state average and as an end score, based on students’ who achieved a similar result at this point - that might be a final score of 80. This can help to recalibrate what their expectations are, especially in subjects like Physics where it can be very hard to do as well as other subjects.
Tracking the progress check results over time means I can also show students (and their parents) how they are improving. They might be starting off getting around 50% and now they’re sitting at around 70% - that is real growth
By doing the progress checks under exam conditions means the data is also valid and reliable - the student hasn’t been able to check their answer online or with a friend - it’s an accurate measure of where they are at that point in time. As it’s powerful for communicating with the student and parents as I’ve shared.
Immediate feedback
Using the progress checks are also much easier to mark than say a paper based test. You can mark all students’ responses to a particular question at once on the one screen, rather than leafing through booklets. I can get marks back to students within the lesson most times.
Having the students’ scores per question visible on the one screen also provides an excellent opportunity to review questions that the class performed poorly on as a whole, or identify individuals that I need to sit one-on-one with and help.
Another powerful feature is that the students are given marking criteria and able to mark their own work. This really helps students understand deeply the processes required to achieve multiple marks on questions. I will then follow this up by marking it as well, giving the student effective feedback on how well they understand the success criteria. Over time, I find that our marks awarded tend to match up. This tells me that the students have gained an understanding of how to read a question, identify the verbs and the marks available, and link this to the number of steps and depth of response they need to give.
This comprehensive data-driven approach, supported by Edrolo progress checks, creates a positive learning environment where students can see their progress and stay motivated. It's not just about collecting data - it's about using it strategically to support student growth and achievement while building their confidence and exam skills.
To help you try this out, here’s a quick guide for using the Edrolo progress checks as part of your teaching.
