Feeling testy

I love tests. They are such a precise, effective way to see what students know. I'm working on getting my in-class discussions and questioning strategies to emulate the sleek and calculated nature of a well crafted quiz, test or quest (quiz+test). All kids have an innate respect or fear of these instruments and it seems like a great way to hold students accountable for what we're doing in class. Maybe combining these with more pre-assessing would take the edge off the dread of test-time.
A couple classes are finishing week-long projects and these are awesome for the same reason. It's like having a long conversation with a student about what we've just been studying. It's hard to have this same dialogue in real-time, especially with time limitations and class sizes.