What type of assessment is typically used to evaluate a student's ability to retain information over time?

Summative assessment is designed to evaluate a student's learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. This type of assessment is typically administered after a specific period of teaching and is often used to determine whether students have retained the knowledge and skills that were expected of them during that time. It measures the outcomes of the education process and includes evaluations such as final exams, standardized tests, or major projects.

In the context of assessing a student’s ability to retain information, summative assessments provide a comprehensive overview of what students have learned and can recall after instruction has been completed. This makes it an appropriate tool for determining long-term retention of knowledge.

Other assessment types, such as formative assessments, focus on monitoring student learning during instruction to guide feedback and improvement rather than evaluating retention over time. Diagnostic assessments aim to identify students' strengths and weaknesses before instruction begins, while retention assessments, although they may seem relevant, are not widely recognized as a formal classification within assessment types in education.