TYPES OF TEST ITEMS
Every teacher wants to find out the progress made by his pupil in the subject he teaches. Achievement in a subject at a particular stage has to be assessed in terms of his mastery in the curricular provisions anticipated for that stage as well as the realization of the objectives expected. A test designed to assess the achievement in any subject with regard to a set of predetermined objectives is called achievement test
ESSAY TEST
The Essay test refers to any written test that requires an examinee to write a sentence, a paragraph or longer passages and that demands a subjective judgment about its quality and completeness when it is scored. The essay should have a structure which has three main parts: an introduction, a main body and a conclusion
After they have read an essay item, students should have a clear idea of how they should tailor their responses. Below are specific guidelines that can help to improve existing essay questions and create new ones.
Clearly define the intended learning outcome to be assessed by the item:
Avoid using essay questions for intended learning outcomes that are better assessed with other kinds of assessment:
Clearly define and situate the task within a problem situation:
Present a reasonable task to students:
The task can be written as a statement or question:
Specify the relative point value and the approximate time limit in clear directions:
State the criteria for grading:
Use several relatively short essay questions rather than one long one: Avoid the use of optional questions: Improve the essay question through preview and review:
Advantages:
1. Assess higher-order or critical thinking skills.
2. Evaluate student thinking and reasoning.
3. Provide authentic experience
4. Minimum chances of copying/cheating.
5. Economic i. The traditional form of examination is less expensive in terms of time, money, manpower and material.
Limitations:
1. Assess a limited sample of the range of content
2. Are difficult and time consuming to grade.
3. Lack of content validity
4. Provide practice in poor or unpolished writing.
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION
Short-answer questions are “constructed-responses”, or open ended questions that require students to create an answer. Short-answer items require. responses of one word to a few sentences. Short-answer items are an effective measure of a student’s ability to accurately recall specific target information. Short-answer items require students to either complete a statement or answer a direct question using a single word or brief phrase.
OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTION
Objective tests are usually those which come with a defined set of answers. There is a question and there is a define answer to the question.
Recall Type: The pupil must answer the correct response from his past experience.
Recognition Type: The pupil indicates the truth or falsity of statements given, selects the correct responses from the several possibilities listed, pairs related ideas arranged irregularly in two parallel columns.
Recall and recognition type includes. 1. Multiple choice questions 2. True or false question 3. Matching question
MATCHING QUESTION
Matching questions involve paired lists that require students to correctly identify, or “matching,” the relationship between the items.
Matching questions involve paired lists that require students to correctly identify, or “matching,” the relationship between the items. Construction: Matching test items, along with true –false and multiple choice, are selection items. They are specialized for use when measuring the student’s ability to identify the relationships between a set of similar items. Each of which has two components, such as words and their definitions, symbols and their meanings, dates and events people and their accomplishments, etc. Responses should be listed in logical order if there is one. If there is no apparent order, the responses should be listed alphabetically. Another way to decrease the possibility of guessing is to allow responses to be used more than once. Directions to the students should be very clear about the use of responses. A difficulty sometimes arises in finding sufficient material.
Advantages: Matching items can assess a large amount of information in a confined space on the exam page, relative to multiple-choice questions; if developed carefully, the probability of guessing is low. To increase that probability further, avoid equal-sized lists by including a few “distracter” items in the second column.
Disadvantage: Matching assess recognition rather than recall of information
TRUE– FALSE QUESTION
True- false questions are those in which a statement is presented and the students indicate in some manner whether the statement is true or false. True- false - Offering a series of statements each of which is to be judged as true or false; “a true- false test” Developing true- false questions: A good use of True- false questions is for the student to demonstrate understanding or simple logic. These questions can be used effectively in stating cause and effect relationships
Guidelines for writing true- false items: Statements should be relatively short and simple
True statements should be about the same length as false statements. (There is a tendency to add details in true details in true statements to make more precise).
The answers should not be obvious to students who don’t know the material
Sweeping broad general statements or absolutes (all, always, never, none, only), tend to be false, since the student need think of only a single incident in which it is untrue to mark it false.
Students who make as always have above average IQ scores.
A similar situation occurs with the use of “can” in a True- false statement. If the student knows of a single case in which something could be done, it would be true.
Ambiguous or vague statements and terms, such as “large”, “long time”, “regularly”, “some”, and “usually” are best avoided in the interest of clarity. Some terms have more than one meaning and may be interpreted differently by individuals.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
Introduction: Multiple-choice exams are commonly used to assess student learning. Although E.L.THORNDIKE developed an early multiple choice test, Frederick J. Kelly was the first to use such items as part of large scale assessment, multiple choice testing is particularly popular in the United States.
Definition: Multiple Choices is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list.
Parts of multiple choice questions: A STEM - the text of the question or incomplete statement. OPTIONS – the choices provide after the stem KEY – the correct answer in the list of options DISTRATERS – the incorrect answers in the list of options
CONSTRUCTING ACHIEVEMENT TEST
Every trainee must have to evaluate their students, subject knowledge what they taught at the time of training period. This has to be done by applying different kinds of tests. Among the various type of tests, achievement test is more relevant for evaluating student’s performances.
Achievement tests serve variety of purposes such as
Judging the pupils mastery of certain essential skills and knowledge
Measuring growth over time.
Ranking pupils in items of their achievements of particular instructional objectives
Diagnosing pupil difficulties.
Evaluating the teacher’s instructional method.
Ascertaining the effectiveness of the curriculum and
Motivating students.
The achievement test has to make an effective instrument of evaluation.
It has to be structured and designed according to a systematic pattern in advance by lag down the following dimensions
Planning Test
Weightage to objectives: Here, the relative importance of each objective is to be considered. The main task here the Weight age to be given to the different objectives in the unit plan. This weightage should be decided by a committee of experts, including the classroom teacher: but, for an achievement test, the teacher can decide this type of question.
Example
Based on revised Taxonomy
Based on Mc Cormack and Yager taxonomy
Weightage to sub units(content):
Here, the Weightage is to be divided for the different areas of the content which may include a unit. (There are different methods of weight to sub-units) Weightage to each sub-unit according to the number of page allotted to it in text book. Weightage to each sub-unit according to the number of periods devoted to it. Weightage to each sub-unit according to the number of specifications that can be achieved through it. Weightage to each sub-unit according to the opinion of the committee of experts in the subject.
Weightage of different forms of question (item format):
For testing different abilities and sub-units, different forms of questions may be suitably used, instead of using the traditional form, the essay type question. In teaching various learning outcomes, the essay type, the short-answer type and objective type question may be judiciously used.
Weightage to difficulty level:
Generally, in a class there are three categories of pupils above average and below average. Accordingly, the test should not be too difficult or too easy. A test should provide a suitable opportunity to the bright, the mediocre and the weak students in the class. Hence, all the test items in a test should not be very difficult or very easy. The teacher is expected to classify test items into three levels-difficult, average and easy. This is quite enough for the achievement test.
Blue print
It is three dimensional chart showing distribution of weightage given to Objectives, content and form of questions
Preparing question paper
Scheme of options
Scheme of option means the option or choices given to the students to select certain questions. There may be external option as well as internal options. External option means the choice is given to the students for selecting a given number of questions only from among the total number of questions provided. For example the students are asked to attend any eight questions out of the given ten. But in case of internal options the choice is given within a question for example write an essay on one of the following.
Questionwise analysis
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