Different types of Test

Why do We give tests?

Tests have many purposes in our schools

To assess a students understanding of a given topic within a subject and identify what they have learned.

To evaluate a students progress in a subject within a given period of time.

To assess a students strength and weaknesses for focus, assistance or individual instruction.

To determine who will receive awards, recognition and scholarships.

To provide a basis of qualification for entry into a school, program, internship, higher education, scholarship.

To gain college credit-advanced placement exams.

To measure a teacher or schools effectiveness Part of teacher evaluation High-stakes testing

Kinds of tests

Intelligence testsPersonality tests

Aptitude testsPerformance testsAchievement tests

Comprehensive examsStandardized tests

Teacher-made tests

Placement Diagnostic

Achievement Proficiency

Criterion-referenced Norm-referenced

FormalInformal

Other categories of tests

TYPES OF

Subjective: Usually essay or brief answer type questions Teacher requires particular information May require a couple words or several paragraphs Objective: Require correct factual response from two or more sources

Two Types of Test (Questions)

Subjective Test Samples

Short Essay A phrase A couple of sentences

Long Essay Three sentences Several Pages

Essay

A response is written in paragraph form to in answer to a question or to fulfill requirements of an item.

Essay Test Require you to:

Draw conclusionsInterpret InfoOrganize MaterialExpress logical thinkingEvaluate problemsAnalyze situations

Types of Essay Items:

Extended response type The test may be answered by the examinee in whatever manner he wants.

Example: Do you think teachers should be allowed to work abroad as domestic helpers? Explain your answer.

Restricted response type The test limits the examinees response may be answered by the examinee’s response in terms of length, content, style or organization.

Example: Give and explain three reasons why the government should or should not allow teachers to work abroad as domestic helpers.

Advantages • Essay items can test complex learning objectives and process used to answer the question.•Summary, critique, analysis, defense, etc •These items require test takers to demonstrate their writing skills as well as correct spelling and grammar.•Essay items are not given to guesswork.

Disadvantages• Test items can be made quickly but take quite some time to answer and check.•The grading process may be subjective - different score results for different teachers.•Essay questions may potentially be unreliable in assessing the entire content of a subject matter.

What to look for on Essay Tests

The task is clearly defined. The students are given an idea on the scope and direction you intended for the answer to take. The question starts with a description of the required behavior to put them in the correct mind frame.

Example: “Compare” or “Analyze”

The questions are written in the linguistic level appropriate to the students.

Proposed Criteria in Grading Essay Test

Ideas (20%)Weight of Evidence Presented (20%)Correct Usage (20%)Logical Conclusions drawn from the evidence (40%)

Example:What is wrong with this question?Describe Asthma?

Better: (Clearly explain what is expected of the student)

Describe asthma. Include in your answer: The pathophysiologic features of asthma The clinical manifestations associated with an asthma episode The management of an asthma episode. (10 points)

What is wrong with this question?Who is better, Rizal or Bonifacio?

Better: (The students are given an idea on the scope and direction you intended for the answer to take)

Compare and contrast the method used by Rizal and Bonifacio in promoting nationalism. (5 points)

Objective Tests Samples

•True/False

•Sentence completion

•Matching

•Multiple Choice

Matching type

Provides a defined term and requires a test taker to match identifying characteristics with the correct term.

Advantages:Matching type items usually requires less time for test takers to answer.

They are easy to score and grade

Distracters may be provided.

Disadvantages:

Answers are already provided which makes it prone to guesswork.

These items do not allow test takers to demonstrate knowledge beyond the choices.

Guidelines:Keep the list of items short and put the brief responses on the right.

Use a larger, or smaller, number of responses than premises, and permit the responses to be used more than once.

Specify in the directions the basis for matching and indicate that each responses may be used once, more than once or not at all.

Completion Type

Provides a test taker with identifying characteristics and requires the test taker to recall the correct term.

Students may guess but with more difficulty.

This Type of item is generally feared by students when no word bank is provided.

What to look for on sentence Completion Tests

Only significant words are omitted.

When omitting words, enough clues are left so that the student who knows the correct answer can supply the correct response.

Ensure the grammatical clues are avoided.

Multiple choice

A number of set answers for each question or item is provided

Advantages:

Multiple choice questions usually requires less time for test takers to answer.

They are easy to score and grade

They provide greater coverage of material and allows for a wide range of difficulty.

They can easily diagnose a test takers difficulty with certain concepts.

They test many levels of learning as well as a test takers ability to integrate information, and can provide feedback to the test taker about Why distracters were wrong and Why correct answers were right.

Disadvantages:

Multiple choice items do not allow test takers to demonstrate knowledge beyond the choices. They may encourage guessing or approximation due to the presence of At least one correct answer.

Multiple choice items that are effective usually take a great time to construct.

Guidelines:

Design each item to measure an important learning outcome.

Present a single, clearly formulated problem in the stem of the item.

State the stem of the item in simple, clear language.

Put as much of the wording as possible in the stem of the item.

State the stem of the item in positive form, wherever possible.

Emphasize negative wording whenever it is used in the stem of an item.

Make certain that the intended answer is correct or clearly best among choices.

Make all alternatives grammatically consistent with the stem of the item and parallel in form.

Avoid verbal clues which might enable students to select the correct answer or to eliminate an incorrect alternative.

Make the distracters plausible and attractive to the uninformed.

Ex: which of the following activities will test the reliability of the achievement test? a. Administer a single test but to two different groups of students. b. Administer two different tests but to the same group of students. c. Administer two parallel tests to two different groups of students. d. Administer two equivalent tests to the same group of students. Answer: D

Alternate Response

Binary choice- a statement is either True or false. Modified True or false.

Advantages:

True-false items can cover a wide range of difficulty levels. These require less time to answer, and are easily graded and scored.

Disadvantages:

These do not allow for test takers to demonstrate broad range of knowledge. Guesswork may work.

Guidelines:

Include only one central significant idea in each statement. Word the statement so precisely that it can be judged unequivocally True or false.

Use negative statements sparingly and avoid double negatives.

Statements of opinion should be attributed to some source.

Keep statements short and use simple language structure.