• Skip to main content

  • Assessment and Feedback Toolkit
  • Assessment Toolkit
  • Assessment types
  • Formative assessment
  • Summative assessment
  • Study
  • Research
  • Explore
  • Connect
Search icon
Close menu icon
Menu icon bar 1 Menu icon bar 2 Menu icon bar 3
University of Glasgow logo small University of Glasgow logo
  • Home
  • MyGlasgow
  • Learning Enhancement & Academic Development Service
  • Assessment and Feedback Toolkit
  • Assessment Toolkit
  • Assessment types

Assessment and Feedback Toolkit

  • Assessment and Feedback Toolkit
  • Assessment Toolkit
  • Assessment types
  • Formative assessment
  • Summative assessment

Assessment types

Assessment is most often one of two types: formative, or summative. However, it can also be both. The differences between these types of assessment are discussed in detail in their specific sections, but the key points are summarised below.

To browse Toolkit content that relates to either assessment type, have a look at the keywords section for formative, summative or assessment.

Formative assessment

  • Provides feedback on how to improve performance to the student.
  • Provides feedback to the lecturer on the class’ understanding.
  • Usually doesn’t affect final grade.
  • Is returned in time for the summative assessment to which it relates.

Summative assessment

  • Assesses a student’s performance at the end of the teaching period.
  • Provides a final grade for the that piece of work and that grade is often combined with others to produce a final grade for the student for that course.
  • Feedback should be provided to the whole class summarising what was done well and what could be improved.
  • Individualised feedback should be provided on request.

Back to the top

STUDY

  • Subjects A-Z
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • Online study
  • Short courses
  • International students
  • Student life
  • Scholarships and funding
  • Visit us / Open Days

RESEARCH

  • Research units A-Z
  • Research opportunities A-Z
  • Glasgow Research Beacons
  • Research strategy & policies
  • Research excellence
  • Our research environment

EXPLORE

  • Meet World Changing Glasgow
  • City of Glasgow
  • Visit us
  • Accessibility
  • Maps and travel
  • Facts & figures
  • News 
  • Events
  • Schools
  • Research Institutes
  • Colleges
  • Services
  • Library

CONNECT

  • Staff A-Z
  • Information for our alumni
  • Support us
  • Business & innovation
  • Community and public engagement
  • Social Media listings
  • Ask a student

JOBS AT GLASGOW

  • Current vacancies

University of Glasgow

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

The University of Glasgow is a registered Scottish charity: Registration Number SC004401

Assessment and Feedback Toolkit

  • Contact us

Legal

  • Accessibility statement
  • Freedom of information
  • FOI publication scheme
  • Modern Slavery Statement
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Terms of use

Current students

  • MyGlasgow Students

Staff

  • MyGlasgow Staff
The Times and Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2022

The University of Glasgow uses cookies for analytics and advertising. Find out more about our Privacy policy.

We use cookies

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.

Analytics cookies

Analytical cookies help us improve our website. We use Google Analytics. All data is anonymised.

ON OFF

Hotjar

Hotjar helps us to understand and improve our users’ behaviour by visually representing their clicks, taps and scrolling. All data is anonymised.

ON OFF

Marketing cookies

Marketing cookies are used to ensure our marketing content is relevant, timely and interest based. They allow our approved partner to measure effectiveness and serve appropriate and personalised marketing messages on other websites based on your activity on glasgow.ac.uk

ON OFF

Privacy policy