Retakes are one of those policies where good intentions can turn into a second full-time job. Done well, they help students learn the material and reduce the pressure of a single test day. Done loosely, they create an endless trickle of make-up tests.
Decide what a retake is for
If a grade is meant to describe what a student currently knows, a later demonstration of mastery should be able to replace an earlier one. That's the reasoning behind retakes in standards-based grading. If your grades are partly about meeting deadlines, you might allow retakes but cap the new score.
The five decisions to make
- What can be retaken? Unit tests and quizzes are common. Final exams usually aren't.
- How many times? One retake per assessment is typical.
- What must happen first? Require a learning step: test corrections with explanations, a set of practice problems, a short conference, or a tutoring session.
- When? Set a window, for example within two weeks of the test being returned and before the next unit test.
- How is it recorded? Higher score, most recent score, average of both, or a cap such as 85% or 90%.
Keeping the workload down
- Make retakes different but parallel. Write two versions of each test when you write the first. Question banks in Google Forms or your LMS help.
- Fixed retake times. One lunch or after-school slot a week, rather than on request.
- Partial retakes. Let students retake only the sections they missed, which shortens both the test and your grading.
- Self-grading quizzes. For skill checks, auto-graded quizzes make retakes nearly free; see grading faster with Google Forms quizzes.
Write it in one paragraph
"Students may retake any unit test once. Before retaking, complete test corrections explaining each error. Retakes happen on Tuesdays after school within two weeks of the test being returned. The higher score counts, up to a maximum of 90%."
That's the whole policy. It's clear enough that students can follow it without asking, and specific enough that you can apply it the same way to everyone. Pair it with a predictable late work policy, and students will know exactly which second chances exist.