Student performance in the Czech Republic is assessed by a wide range of instruments, ranging from externally-based examinations to ongoing daily formative assessment in the classroom. All students are assessed in an ongoing manner throughout the school year in each curriculum area. Students are assessed both orally and through school-based tests/examinations. Marks used to report student achievement are on a scale of 1 to 5. Assessment criteria and methods are defined by each school. There are no externallybased national final examinations at the end of basic (and compulsory) education. By contrast, exit examinations are mandatory at the end of secondary education. These refer to the school-leaving examination and the final examination to obtain the apprenticeship certificate. As of 2011, the school-leaving examinations have a common national standardised part. Finally, full-cohort national standardised tests are currently being introduced in grades 5 and 9 of basic education in the Czech language, foreign language and mathematics. A major asset is that assessment is seen as part of the professional role of teachers in the Czech Republic. Other strengths include the introduction of an external dimension to assessment and the increased focus on student outcomes. However, considerable challenges exist in building effective student assessment approaches. These include the currently traditional approaches to learning and assessment; the incipient development of assessment for learning; concerns about current approaches to summative assessment; the limited consistency of student assessment across schools and classes; the potential risks of national standardised tests; the little interaction among teachers around student assessment; the insufficient attention to assessment skills in initial teacher education; and the narrow information reported to parents and legal guardians.