Pre-Test and Post-Test: How to Measure What People Learned in Training
Attendance shows who was in the room. A pre-test and post-test show what they learned. Here is how to run both without slowing the training down.
Attendance records prove that people were in the room. They do not prove that anyone learned anything. A simple pre-test and post-test fills that gap: the same short quiz at the start and at the end, and the difference between the two scores shows what the training added.
Why measure before and after
A single test at the end tells you how much people know, not how much the training taught them. Someone who scores 80% might have known it all already. Comparing each person’s post-test with their own pre-test shows real learning, highlights topics that need more time, and gives clients and managers evidence that the programme works.
Writing good questions
- Test the learning objectives. One or two questions per objective, nothing that was not taught.
- Use the same questions in both tests. Otherwise you are comparing two different exams. Shuffle the answer order if you like, but keep the content identical.
- Prefer multiple choice with plausible wrong answers. Obvious distractors make every score look good.
- Keep it short. Eight to twelve questions take about five minutes, which is a fair cost at the start and the end of a session.
Running it on participants’ phones
The easiest moment for the pre-test is right after people check in, and for the post-test right after they check out. If you already use QR code check-in, the phone that recorded attendance can open the quiz straight away. Each person gets a personal link, so there are no accounts, no shared links and no answering twice.
Decide on the rules in advance: the pass mark, whether people may try again, and whether they see the correct answers after submitting. Showing answers after the post-test turns the quiz into one last piece of teaching.
Reading the results
Look at three numbers: the average score before, the average after, and the share of people who improved. Then look question by question. A question most people still get wrong after the training points to a topic that needs a new explanation, not more slides.
Be careful with small groups and with people who only took one of the two tests: compare only those who took both.
Should certificates require a pass?
It depends on the programme. For awareness sessions, attendance is usually enough. For safety, compliance or accredited training, requiring both attendance and a passed quiz makes a certificate mean more. Make it a deliberate choice and tell participants at the start.
QRtimer runs quizzes with a pass mark, pairs a pre-test with a post-test to show the improvement, and lets you decide whether a passed quiz is required for the certificate. See how to set up a quiz.