I spent 3.5 hours tonight creating a PreAssessment to give my students on the second day of school. I used test prep questions from a website, and retyped them and inserted the graphics. I have to say, it came out amazingly! I'm proud of myself. I'm basically just going to use the test to see how much the students learn over the course of the year by giving them the same test during the last week of school, too.
It still needs to be revised, though. I want to take the test to see how long it takes me and then judge whether or not it's too long. I was also thinking about giving the multiple choice on Thursday and then the open ended on Friday to break it up a bit. I have 90 minute periods this year, and I don't want to overwhelm them with a long, boring during the first week of school. Let me know if anyone has any comments or suggestions!