Why I Love Charlotte Mason Exams

One of the questions I get asked most frequently by families who are just starting to look into the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling is, how do you do exams? If, throughout the year, we steer clear of asking direct questions, fill-in-the-blank type tests, or multiple choice questions, how do we do exams?

The good news is that doing exams the CM way is just a little stretch beyond the usual things we do in our regular school day.

Let me explain.

Narration as a Foundation of CM Learning

For every school lesson we have, we look to narration as our foundational tool (with the exception of math, poetry, and the music part of “riches.”), right? So a school lesson is not finished until the child has narrated what he heard or read. This is what we can refer to as short-term narration, where he tells back what he has just finished reading or listening to, right at that moment.

And then, the next time we get back to that same book–whether it’s a second day this week, or the same day next week, or maybe even two weeks from now–the first thing we do is, we ask the child to remind us what happened last time. (Well, they shouldn’t really be reminding us, but you get my drift!) This helps scaffold the lesson, and connects the previous reading to what’s coming up next. We can call this a bit of a medium-term narration, because the student is narrating something that he heard perhaps a few days ago or even a week or two ago.

By this point, we start to appreciate the power of narration: what you narrate really is what you assimilate, because students can still recall what happened the last time you met that book. And, they can do it for ALL their books, despite the sheer number of them! (I’m amazed! Aren’t you?)

Narration Questions in a CM Exam

And then, here comes the exams, many weeks after all the readings and narrations. A typical CM exam for a Form 1 (or first to third grades) student can sound like this:

• Tell what you remember about Robert Fulton’s childhood.
• Describe your favorite scene in The Secret Garden.
• Tell all you know about the habits of foxes OR rabbits, from the book “Ways of Wood Folk.”

Sometimes, it can be a specific story, like:

• Tell what happened with King Alfred and the cakes.
• Tell all you remember about Ferdinand Magellan’s journey to the spice islands.

Do you see what’s happening in this case, comparing it to the way the child has narrated right after the lesson and even a week or two afterwards? This time, it may have been a few weeks since he read about Magellan or about King Alfred, but he’s expected to remember about them. And most of the time, he does remember!

Benefits of a CM Exam

So what are the benefits of giving exams this way?

1. We test what the child remembers, not what he doesn’t.

Isn’t this the saddest part about exams when we were growing up–when we struggle to know the answer to the questions but we just can’t remember them? In the CM method of giving exams, we celebrate all that the child can tell us about his past school lessons.

2. It gives the child a chance to tell about the scenes in his own words and showcasing his unique personality.

While narrations done right after a reading may show our child’s personality, it’s even more evident the farther away they are from the reading.

For example, in our recently concluded exam, my fourth-grade son was asked to narrate about the Battle of Jericho from the Bible. In my mind, I was picturing the armies marching around the tower and blowing the trumpet until the walls came down. To my surprise, my son started talking about Joshua sending two spies into Jericho and being hidden in “a woman’s house.” He spent a few minutes talking about how that “woman” begged the spies to save her and her family. And then when he finally talked about how the Israelite army attacked Jericho, he gave only 5 seconds to the walls coming down, and then went back to talking about how they tried to find the woman and her family–even going so far as to say they also saved her mother, father, brothers, sisters… and cousins! 😀 (Accuracy-wise, I guess cousins shouldn’t be there?)

3. We don’t need to “review” or “cram” because it’s not about memorizing facts, but remembering stories and scenes.

One of the most stressful memories that my husband has from his school days is cramming the night before an exam. In a CM homeschool, we don’t worry about that, because we are confident that our children remember the stories we had read about.

4. It’s a great way to revisit favorite characters and story scenes.

This is my favorite part about exams: hearing my child happily tell back his favorite scenes. It assures me that somehow, these scenes and stories have actually made it inside his heart, and are transforming him slowly but surely.

Oh, and let me add a personal reason why I love CM exams:

5. It gives us a chance to take a break, breathe, and recharge.

In our family, we take one week to do exams. For my older son who does written narrations, it takes longer, but for my fourth grader who’s still doing mostly oral narration, we record his exam narrations on video, so it goes by really fast. Then, we get some extra time to relax, have some free-read time, or even go somewhere fun!

Just this past week was our exam week, and we got to go to a nearby beach. Ahhh, perfect balm for my strung-up mommy heart, and just enough rejuvenation before we jump back in next week!

Rethinking education through CM exams

In a way, doing exams in a CM homeschool really challenges my mindset about education. It gives me a bigger picture of my children’s progress, and reminds me to celebrate, even when progress seemed slow over the weeks of school lessons. It also gives us time to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned so far, and to spend some extra time just bonding and creating memories as a family. Win-win!