Have You Ever Been to College?

Have you ever been to a college class? Did that class only consist of two exams, a midterm and a final throughout the entire semester? How much stress did you feel around the time those exams came around? These are the types of problems that Patrick O’Malley argues against in his essay “More Testing, More Learning”. In this essay, O’Malley takes the stand presenting the fact that there are courses in college that provide infrequent testing. He lets it be known that this is not the most effective way to create productive students. The more testing there is, the more chances the student will succeed in that course. That is the simple point he is attempting to prove throughout this essay. Patrick O’Malley is credible in his argument due to the fact that he is clear in his argument with ability to address objections to the system as well as the solutions. With the objections and solutions, he has top of the line research that ranges from his personal professors to professors at Harvard University. O’Malley also, from the beginning, grabs and he holds your attention, which are all main points leading to a believable, credible paper. Patrick O’Malley hit’s a credibility point when he first starts his argument. This credibility point is given when you see how clear O’Malley makes his objective. From the beginning you know that he wants to have more tests incorporated into the higher education school system. O’Malley has special knowledge of the subject because he is not from the outside looking in. He is a student himself looking to inform the outside world as well as other students about what is occurring inside of the system. He never strays away from the point he is trying to make and he is quite adamant about his topic. He constantly refers back to the point that “If professors gave additional brief exams at frequent intervals, student would learn more, study more regularly, worry less, and perform better on midterms, finals, and other papers and projects.”