Through the assessment at http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/memory I learned that my memory is generally better than I thought, according to this assessment. My results must be qualified by at least two factors. One, is that I was concentrating much harder than I usually am in daily tasks, and there were few distractions when I took the assessment. This might have had a positive impact on my performance. The other factor is that it was the end of the work day, and I had already been working at a computer for 8 hours. This might have had a negative impact on my performance.
If I was to take this assessment again, I don’t think I would prepare myself any differently unless there was some kind of incentive to do well. If the point of the assessment is to just learn something about myself, then I would want to get an accurate reading. One thing that I would do differently is actually click on the smiley face at the end when I saw it. I remembered to click on it, but I chose not to because I did not actually think that the survey was over yet, since the progress bar at the bottom showed that there were still slides to come.
I followed this assessment with another exercise. I did not find this helpful, perhaps because I was mentally tired from a full day at work and then focused concentration on the assessment above. If I was designing a lesson in which the students needed to memorize some information to apply to problem solving, I would consider the time of day and the energy levels of the students, as well as the amount of time between breaks from work. I believe that the timing of the exercise and the assessment would impact student performance.
Tags: assessment, bbc, lesson planning, memory
