Which is better and why? Formal or informal assessment?

Neither formal nor informal assessment is inherently better. The better choice depends on the purpose, the evidence you need, the stakes for the learner, and how the results will be used.

This page is a personal classroom guide, not institutional policy. South African curriculum references are labelled as such. Last reviewed: 30 August 2026.

Introduction

Teachers use assessment to find out what learners know, can do and still need. Formal and informal assessment both belong in that work. They are not the only useful distinction. Formative and summative assessment answer a different question: whether the evidence is used to improve learning as it happens, or to summarise achievement at a point in time.

A test can be formal and still used formatively if the teacher and learners act on the results. An observation can be informal and still contribute to a summative judgement if it is recorded against clear criteria. Mixing those dimensions is how this topic becomes confusing.

Types of assessment

Formal assessment

Formal assessment is planned, structured evidence-gathering with stated criteria, a defined task, and a record that can be shared or revisited. It often happens at agreed points in a programme. It can include tests, assignments, practical tasks, orals, performances and examinations.

Formal does not mean standardised. It does not mean multiple choice. It does not mean learners never generate their own answers. Constructed responses, investigations and performances can all be formal when they are planned, criteria-based and recorded.

Informal assessment

Informal assessment is the evidence teachers gather in the flow of teaching: questions, discussion, observation, drafts, quick writes and other classroom checks. It is often lighter and more frequent than a set-piece task. It is not the same as “no record” and not the same as “no criteria”.

If informal evidence will later support a mark, a report or a decision about extra help, write it down. Unrecorded impressions fade and are hard to defend.

Formal vs informal assessment

Question	Formal assessment	Informal assessment
When it usually happens	At planned points, often after a unit or term	During teaching, often daily or weekly
How it is set up	Stated task, criteria and conditions	Embedded in classwork, discussion or observation
What it can look like	Test, assignment, practical, oral, performance, exam	Questioning, draft comments, exit ticket, observation note
Record	Usually a score, level or comment on a file	Should be recorded when it will guide teaching or reporting
Typical strength	Comparable evidence against shared criteria	Fast information that can change the next lesson
Typical risk	Anxiety, narrow tasks, delayed feedback	Bias, forgotten evidence, unclear criteria

Formative versus summative sits across this table, not inside one column. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam describe assessment as formative when the evidence is actually used to adapt teaching to meet learners’ needs. A formal test used only to rank, with no follow-up, is summative. An informal check that changes tomorrow’s grouping is formative.

Purpose of assessment

Choose the method after you can answer four questions:

1. What decision or next step will this evidence support?
2. What kind of evidence would actually show that learning?
3. How high are the stakes for the learner?
4. Who will use the results, and how soon?

The 2014 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, published by AERA, APA and NCME, treat validity, reliability and fairness as properties of an assessment use, not as badges a test automatically owns. A neat marksheet is not proof that the task measured what you intended, or that every learner had a fair chance to show it.

In South African public schools, the Department of Basic Education’s Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R-12 set recording, reporting and promotion requirements. That is national policy for that system. It does not make every formal task a standardised national test, and it does not make informal classroom checks optional extras with no professional duty of care.

Examples of formal assessment

• An end-of-unit test with a mark scheme, including short answers and a longer written or practical item.
• A planned oral or presentation assessed against a rubric.
• A practical or performance task with stated criteria and a recorded result.
• A school-based assessment or examination required by a curriculum or qualification.
• A standardised test, when one is actually being used for comparison or placement. Treat that as one formal option, not the definition of formal assessment.

Examples of informal assessment

• Exit tickets or entry tickets: one question on the way out or in, used to decide whether to reteach.
• 3-2-1: three ideas, two examples, one remaining question.
• A two-minute quick write after an explanation.
• A class vote used as a starting check, then followed by explanation, not as a mark.
• Concept maps or flashcards made in class and reviewed with a partner.
• Observation notes during group work or practical activity.

Using both in the classroom

Use informal checks to see whether today’s teaching landed, and to adjust before a high-stakes moment. Use formal tasks when you need a more comparable record against shared criteria, or when a curriculum requires it.

Do not assume that informal assessment is kinder and formal assessment is harsher. A surprise recitation can be more stressful than a published test. Do not assume younger learners can only be assessed informally. They can complete short planned tasks if the format fits.

Keep records that match the use. Informal notes can be brief. Formal files should show the task, the criteria, the result and any access arrangements. If you cannot explain a mark six weeks later, the record was too thin.

Challenges

Formal assessment goes wrong when the task is narrower than the learning, when feedback arrives too late to use, or when a multiple-choice paper is treated as the only respectable evidence. Multiple-choice items can be useful. They cannot, on their own, show extended reasoning.

Informal assessment goes wrong when it is only a feeling, when it favours the learners who speak first, or when it is never written down. “I just know how they are doing” is not a defence if a parent, inspector or the learner asks for the evidence.

AI tools can draft items, summarise comments or flag possible errors. They can also leak learner data, reproduce bias, and invent fluent nonsense. Keep learner work inside approved school systems, check every AI-generated item before it is used, and keep a human responsible for the judgement. This page is not a guide to automating marks.

Conclusion

Ask which is better only after you know what the assessment is for. Formal and informal assessment answer different classroom jobs. Most teaching needs both, plus a clear line between evidence used to improve learning and evidence used to summarise it.

Related: ICT terms and definitions and comparing formative and summative assessment.

Sources

1. Department of Basic Education, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R-12. education.gov.za CAPS
2. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education, Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2014). APA testing standards
3. Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment.” Phi Delta Kappan 80(2), 139-148.