This year has marked the apperance of postyourtest.com a Web site created by Demir Oral, a graduate of Saint Louis University’s MIS program. The site has caught the eyes of a few universities and some skeptical professors. 

The controversy surrounding the site stems from its ability to let anyone view tests from other universities. The site is mostly user-run; all tests, quizzes and questions on the site are uploaded by students or professors who choose to release the information on the Internet.

Demir said the site is not an avenue for cheating.

“This Web site is a tool for education,” Demir said.

The goal of Demir’s Web site is to give students previous tests to reference so they get higher grades. 

But the site is not limited to just students.

“It could also be a great tool for professors to create higher-quality course material,” Demir said. 

The idea behind the site is to allow students and professors to view many different tests from a variety of universities and take what they can from it. 

Jincy Jalving, a sophomore English major, thought the site had a neat concept. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” Jalving said. “It’ll be nice to have a place for some extra studying.” 

Demir’s goal for students is to give extra material that will give them a more complete idea of the subject and quiz their knowledge before test time. 

Professors who visit the site can see what other teachers in the country are doing with their tests and improve their own methods. 

Currently, no tests have been posted on the site for NAU, ASU or U of A, and some professors would like to keep it that way. 

“I think it’s a great idea but I personally wouldn’t use it,” said David Trilling, an astrobiology professor at NAU. “I like to re-use a lot of my test questions”. 

Once a teacher’s test has been posted, any student has access to the test. This makes re-using tests unappealing to professors. However, Trilling thought the idea of sharing material with other professors was interesting.

Postyourtest.com does have restrictions to what can be posted on the site. Essays, reports and term papers are not allowed, and if requested, users need permission to post certain tests.

When using the site itself, though, users are allowed to rate, comment and discuss the difficulty of the posted tests with other people online. Each posted test gives students a variety of other information, including: who posted it, what university it is from, the subject it covers, when it was given and the name of the teacher who created it.

Demir’s vision for the site is simple: “to become the largest test repository in the world and to be the premier and most recognizable tool for professors and students for furthering education.”

However, with the site being as new as it is, just shy of 10 months old, Demir is far from reaching this goal. The site holds only about 150 tests so far, related mostly to math and science, while a host of other subjects are currently barren. 

“It’s a shame that there aren’t more tests on there to look at,” said Gene Genematas, an undeclared freshman. “Who knows, maybe it’ll be as useful as Sparknotes someday.” 

The search engine on the Web site gives a large variety of ways to search for tests, but it lacks uniformity. Since all submissions are made by the public, the posters determine the tags for the tests they put on the site. This aspect makes searching tricky.

When searching for a test on math, the term “Math” is not acceptable; it must be typed as “Mathematics.” When searching for a particular course, it may appear as “MATH 205” or “math205;” this splits the search results and makes access to the site’s resources difficult. 

However, despite the moral questionability of his site and the wary eyes of universities, Demir said he sincerely hopes his Web site will “help students throughout the world get their A+.”