Words to describe the process of formative assessment

At the University of Brighton, the course documentation (module descriptors) etc. talk about two types of assessment: formative assessment, and summative assessment. These sound similar, but have different purposes.

Formative assessment is designed to ‘give you a steer’ and to help you to ‘check out’ whether your work is going in the right direction. All undergraduate modules will include some formative assessment. Undertaking these tasks and reading/listening to the feedback will help you to succeed in the module.

Your overall performance in the module will also be assessed via assignments, projects, tests and/or exams which evaluate your achievement of module learning outcomes These summative assessments will be graded, and will contribute towards your overall mark for the module. The formative assessments are designed to help you succeed in the summative assessments.