Diane, We can assess students (formal or informally) in many ways. Even as we are in the process of delivering a lesson, we can check for understanding frequently along the way, during the lesson. Daily quizes helps reinforce earlier material with grading representing only small, incremental componets of their grade. Written essays do take a bit longer to grade but allow students to express their understanding in their own way and may allow confirmation the student has mastered the material. Besides multiple choice, there can be matching, true/false, fill in the blank, labeling, to name a few. Besides tests, a final grade can come from clearly defined reqirements for a project, homework, written exercises, class participation, etc. Together this variety may allow the instructor to get a better feel about the degree of student learning that has occurred. In all these examples, putting greater emphasis on the more important components is critical (so as to avoid earning an artificial higher grade based on low level performance for an activity that doesn't really demonstrate learning). Barry Westling