In recent years, assessment of what is actually learned or accomplished in a college career has gained increasing attention. An instructor of a weather and climate geography course at Illinois State University constructed a 25-question multiple choice test in order to develop a method of assessing what his students learned during the course. The tests were administered to each section of the course on the first day of classes and again on the last day of classes. Because not all students who ultimately enrolled were present on the first day and not everyone bothered to attend on the last day, out of a possible 396 students, only 143 took both the pre-test and the post-test. For the pre-test, the mean was 23.6, illustrating little knowledge of weather and climate. For the post-test the mean was 43.5. Before-and-after testing may prove the worth of a course or program, but there are problems. Due to enrollment procedures used at many universities, it will always be difficult to test everyone. The second problem is student motivation in taking such tests. At the present time, the test scores are not considered in a student's grade; thus there is no real motivation to do well on them. (SM)
