The Advanced Test Questions

Each monthly test for students in the advanced course will include 2 or 3 questions that require advanced thinking or understanding. Following is information about these questions, and the reason why thiese questions are included.

Teacher's reasoning: This system allows students to apply their knowledge, not to just memorize and repeat something they simply practiced a great many times. The purpose of an advanced course is for students to extend and apply their learning beyond the basics of a course. This new system will challenge students to apply what they have learned to problems which are doable, but which may not be in the same format that they have seen before. I expect advanced students to look at these problems as a good challenge, and when they do these problems on the test they need to think about the things they have learned and how they might apply those skills.

Extend knowledge: These questions will require advanced students to use their knowledge and skills beyond the basic problems they practice from the textbook and from the practice test.
No prior notice of the sections: The questions will come from the learning and understanding inherent in the month's sections, but students will not be told in advance which of the sections the questions will be based upon.
Similar but harder: These questions will still be similar to questions that are found in the textbook, but they will generally be similar to the harder questions that are found in the later part of the exercises in a section.
Definitely possible: Be assured that these two or three questions are indeed possible to be correctly completed with students' prior knowledge and with the concepts and skills they have learned in the current chapter and sections, and possibly combined with prior months' concepts and skills.
Not shown on practice test: These questions will NOT be part of the practice test. All practice test questions will be mirrored on the test for advanced students, but not these 2 or 3 questions; there will never be practice questions similar to the advanced questions.
How to prepare: Students should mainly learn the concepts and skills of the month really well, being able to recognize connections and applications of the concepts and skills. Students who also review the "B" exercises in each section may recognize the type of problems when they see the 2 or 3 problems on the test.
Between 5 and 10 percent of the monthly test: These questions will never count for more than 10% of the points of a test, but will generally be between 5% and 10% (2 or 3 questions). For instance, on a 35 question test, each question would be worth approximately 2.86 points, so 3 advanced questions would be worth about 8.6% of the total test.
NOTE: An advanced course grade is supposed to signify that students have gone beyond the regular course in learning and in showing their learning. These questions should show that, but are kept to an amount that will not affect more than one letter grade for any student. Yes, it will be a little harder to get an A, but that is appropriate for an advanced course. Remember that a B (and maybe even a C) in an advanced course is often viewed as more significant than an A in a regular course.