What purpose does formative testing serve?

The purpose of formative testing is to aid in planning and diagnosis before or during instruction. Formative assessments are designed to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to enhance their understanding and learning processes. This type of assessment helps identify students' strengths and weaknesses, allowing educators to adjust their teaching methods or curriculum to better meet the students' needs.

While final grades, benchmarking student achievement, and evaluating overall curriculum effectiveness are important aspects of educational assessment, they are primarily associated with summative assessments, which evaluate learning after instruction has taken place. Formative assessments, on the other hand, focus on monitoring student progress in real-time, facilitating a responsive teaching approach.