A pre-test is an assessment that is given to the learners before a course is run. Often, if a learner passes the pre-test, they are not required to complete a section of the course (or the whole course). The idea is that they already know the content so it would be a waste of their time to do the course.
Elearning is often delivered to a wide variety of participants so some may already be familiar with the content. So, a pre-test can be very effective in limiting the time that is spent on a course to only the people that really need it.
Two important things to note about a pre-test are:
1. The questions have to be designed well so that they are targeting people who already know the information, and
2. The pre-test should be optional. There is no point making someone who doesn’t know the content do the pre-test.
So, if you want to make your learning more efficient, consider a pre-test.