TTRS includes a Level Assessment feature to help test a student’s spelling and measure progress as they move through the course.

When level tests are turned on in a learner's settings, students take a prettest and posttest at the start and end of the level. These spelling tests are available for Levels 2–24.
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To avoid any unnecessary stigma around testing, the pretest is called a words preview and the posttest is called a words review and scores for the words preview are not displayed on the student's level overview screen.

The words preview measures baseline knowledge of the spelling patterns introduced in the upcoming level and can only be taken once, ideally before the first module of the level is begun.

The words review posttest measures the same spelling patterns and is ideally taken after all modules in the level have been completed. It can be taken as many times as the student likes and learners are encouraged to repeat it to try to achieve "gold status" which is reached by spelling all words in the test correctly.

You can turn level assessments on and off in the Students tab of your Admin Settings by toggling the "Enable words review" switch. The default setting for all new users is on.
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If you have multiple student accounts and would like to turn spelling assessments off for an individual learner, select their account under the Students tab and use the Actions dropdown menu to disable words review for their account only.
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When students select a words preview or review module they are prompted with a start screen that gives them some general instructions on what to expect.

The test interface uses the same on-screen appearance settings the student has chosen for regular typing modules. Words are spoken out loud instead of being displayed on screen.

If a student is unclear as to the word they are meant to spell, an image and context hint are available to help them.

Selecting image hint will display an image to the right of the module screen. Selecting context hint will play a phrase that helps to clarify the word's meaning. A learner can replay the word and the context hint as many times as is necessary.

If seeing time passing during an assessment causes your learner to become anxious, the timer can be hidden by clicking on the numbers at the top right of the screen. It will change them into a clock icon. You can make the time reappear by clicking on the icon again. Please note, a student's score is entirely dependent on accuracy. Time taken is not factored into words preview or review results.

When a student has typed all of the words in the test, they will be shown a completion screen and prompted to either begin the first module of the level following a words preview or move to the next level following a words review. If a student has not scored 100% on a words review, they will also be given the option to retake the words review to try to achieve gold status.
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Each level assessment is made up of 12 words that reflect the main spelling and phonics patterns introduced in a level. Words are drawn directly from module content and appear in random order. The same words that appear on the words preview also appear on the words review.

Level assessment results can be viewed by accessing the Students tab from your Admin account and choosing Level Assessments.
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An arrow between words preview (pretest) and words review (posttest) scores indicates improvement. When evaluating spelling performance, it's important to consider not all students excel at test-taking. A student's average module performance score is also shown in this table to help you qualify their results.
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To see the actual words a student spelled correctly or incorrectly on a test, click the Details link at the end of the row.

You can toggle between preview and review results using the tab at the top left.
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Note, if multiple words review tests have been taken, the accuracy percentage shown in the main tab will reflect a student's highest score. To view previous test scores, use the drop down option on the bottom left and select a test date and time to view results.
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The words preview and review modules replace a previous spelling assessment system in which TTRS users could click a Spelling Assessment button on the top right of the level overview screen to generate a random test made up of words from the level. Test items in these assessments were not selected based on their phonics or spelling patterns and could reflect word parts, words that begin with capital letters and/or articles found in sentences that appear in the level. They did not include image or audio context hints. You can learn more about the older assessment system here.
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If you are looking to measure your student's spelling progress, we highly recommend enabling words review and using the new system for more accurate progress reporting and results.
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If you enable words review in settings and your student has previous test results from the old system, these will still be available to you. You can view them by selecting the Archive button in the top right of the Level Assessments tab.
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