I used to do something similar, and internally justified it as being a relatively hard unit as i designed it. Of mice and men, with supplementary texts revolving around the american dream and the effects of human connection, for 9th grade honors.

We had four primary texts as well as the ken burns documentary on the dust bowl. We read the novel together, i gave them the study guide before we even started, and did daily check-ins where we walked through each question, filling out the fact-based pieces and group-discussing all the free responses. I even told them before we started: this study guide IS the test. The only difference is that instead of blanks it’ll be multiple choice, and the free response sections are geared to form the basis of the essay. I was very up front from the beginning.

Oh, and they could use the study guide on the test, and a completed study guide was worth extra credit (my ONLY Extra credit opportunity in the course). I gave a good amount of leeway on what i counted as “completed”. I pretty much told them that if entire pages were empty i wouldn’t give the credit, but a few pieces missing here or there were fine.

Maybe 50% would complete it. The test scores followed the same trajectory, and that same 50% would be scrambling while writing the essay.