Kirk, thanks for your response. You bring forward a critical distinction with respect to different forms of assessment and a difference between student skills and student knowledge. One one side of the argument there is the issue that states that a properly prepared student should perform well on any level of assessment because they know the material. There is another side of the argument that questions if all students perceive assessments in the same manner and relate understanding the materials into a high correlation of successfully completing an assessment. This situation is in relation to your comment about some students not having issues with tests while others have real issues that cause them to not perform well when taking a test. Before an instructor jumps to a conclusion that a student is not properly prepared and through their own lack of preparation they perform poorly on a test, they should take some additional time to ensure other factors are not a root cause. For example, and I only speak to this as I have this condition myself, if a student has one of the many forms of dyslexia, no about of preparation will allow them to perform well on some forms of assessments. Some situations may require simple changes in study habits while others may require a very different form by which the assessment is administered. Other conditions do exist and should be considered before labeling a student as having poor study habits. No, not all students have dyslexia. Some students will just need to study harder or learn better study habits. An effective instructor will take the time to research other reasons behind a student who continually performs poorly on assessments despite all efforts to motivate or provide alternate study materials to that student. Just one of the techniques that separate good instructors from GREAT instructors. Regards, James Jackson