Being able to accurately evaluate students' cognitive, affective, and psychomotor development at the beginning of a course is critical for teachers to create meaningful learning experiences for them. Initial student evaluation provides teachers with quick perceptive and practical knowledge of student characteristics as well as a diagnosis of what students know and can do. Collecting initial information from the students allows teachers the ability to design activities and provide contexts that are representative of student career choices and interest. Learning activities that foster critical-thinking and problem-solving skills can benefit from initial student evaluation by providing teachers with baseline data reflective of the students' abilities and strengths in these areas. Teachers plan, teach, and assess based on the characteristics of their students. Knowing specific student characteristics allows a teacher to create equitable groupings to maximize student learning. This article presents types of baseline data that are available to teachers.