Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the end of a defined instructional period. This is usually at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year.
Summative assessments are an assessment of learning. They come after learning has taken place and are used to judge how well the student has mastered the material.
Advantages: They provide motivation for students. They are useful for teacher self-reflection. They can be used to measure academic achievement, identify learning problems, or inform instructional adjustments.
Disadvantages: They are not always an accurate reflection of teacher performance or student learning. They can cause undue pressure on the student. They can lead to teachers teaching to the test, rather than teaching what the student might actually need to know.
An example would be a math test asking the students to count various sets of objects depicted on a sheet of paper and write the correct number.