In advance of the 2024-2025 school year, the administration announced that pop quizzes could no longer hurt anyone’s grade, effectively eliminating them. While uncontroversial and celebrated by the student body, this change was wrong. Pop quizzes must come back.

Without pop quizzes, students have lower incentive to pay attention in class. While tests and essays do require the application of skills and information that students learn in class, most teachers facilitate a review period beforehand. At the review, students can learn whatever they weren’t paying attention to. 

In many classes, students, myself included, chat with friends or do other work instead of paying attention to the material at hand. Pop quizzes, on the other hand, lead to constant attentiveness and participation, which contributes to an enjoyable and effective learning environment.

However, what should not come back are math and science spot checks, or any other pop quizzes that test a student’s application of skills. Pop quizzes of that nature cause fear and often result in low grades, even if a student was paying attention. 

The pop quizzes that should be allowed, even encouraged, are ones where the most basic facts are tested – anyone who pays attention should get a 100. 

Not only will quizzes of that nature increase attentiveness, they will also boost grades for anyone who pays attention.