What did this year’s Monitor Exams teach us?

Monitor Exams. Or Testovanie 9.

These words are certainly familiar not only to Slovak students, but also to many who have been studying in Slovakia for a longer period of time. Monitor, or Testovanie 9 by it’s official name, is an examination assessing students’ knowledge of the Slovak language and Mathematics in grades 9 and 10, annually organized by the government. It is compulsory for all students who have been studying in Slovakia for more than two years.

Well, I said to myself when I heard about this as a teacher of a tested subject, but do they really have to take them in the Slovak language? Do they know terms like protractor or adverbial determiner in Slovak?

The school administration expressed an encouraging Yes. And so, together with my Year 10 class, we were in for a months-long journey of preparation, revision, and learning a new perspective on the tests and the education system.

First of all, Monitor is important for the school as a whole, not for students as individuals – although it is true that every school is interested in the top-achievers. That’s why we started with revision and reinforcement of knowledge – we began analyzing language as a system made up of different layers, like a pyramid. We went through every single layer and the key words, by which the students could immediately tell what layer the question was referring to.

But our main enemy was fear. All of us experience anxiety or stress as a natural part of our lives, but unreasonable fear of the unknown is something we can work on and get rid of. And that was our first key to successfully completing the Monitor. We went over tests from previous years, we philosophized and brainstormed. We discussed test writing strategies, we tried it out on mock exams – and we had a teeny bit of fun doing that.

And the result? We don’t know. I mean, we don’t know yet. But we do know something – we know that the students gave it their best. That they tried their best and worked their hardest. That they have been thinking about the questions, that they have been duly working on it and that they have not given up.

Once the results come in and we review the tests together, we may have different feelings. But for me, the most important thing for now is that when I met my students in the canteen on the day of testing, every single one of them told me that they managed just fine and that it was cool. That they were glad they had prepared. And I can only hope that, as teachers, we will continue to prepare them this way – not only for Monitors, but also for their academic life or their system of values.