BASICS OF ASSESSMENT

BOOK ON ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING - PLEASE CONTACT FOR PRINTED VERSION CALICUT UNIVERSITY, KERALA, INDIA CO-OPERATIVE STORE NUMBER - 0494-2400012

TYPES OF TEST ITEMS

TYPES OF TEST ITEMS 

 The objective type are constructed on educational achievements aptitude, and intelligence objective type test much more precise than essay type tests. The objective types test are standardized this type test mainly used in research work, guidance and counseling and also in administration for selecting candidates for different jobs. The obtained scores are transformed into standard scores which can be easily interpretable and understandable.

R-L Ebel and D.A Frishe (1986) define an objective tent as “one that can be provided with a simple predetermined tent of correct answers that objective opinion or judgement in the acoring procedure is eliminated.”

W. Wiersma and S.G. Jurs (1990) states, “objective items are items can be objectively scored, items on which persons select a response from a list of opinions.” There are three type of objective type tests are following.

1.                 Alternate – Response test item

2.                 Matching type system

3.                 Multiple choice type system.

ALTERNATE-RESPONSE TEST ITEM

According to N.E Gronlernd (1985), “the alternative response test item consists of a declarative  statement that the pupil is asked to mark true or false, right or wrong , correct or incorrect, yes or no, factor opinion, agree or disagree and the like. In each case there are only two possible answers. Because the true-false opinion is the most common, this item type is most frequently referred to as true false item.”

In the alternative-response test, one of two responses only one is correct. Some of the common variations of the alternate –response test are

a) True of False b) Yes-No

c) Right-wrong  d) Correct-incorrect.

For example : The Vedas are the religious books of the Hindus Yes/

No

MERITS OF ALTERNATE-RESPONSE TEST ITEMS.

1.                 It is easy to correct them

2.                 They are capable of sampling very quickly a wide range of the subject matter.

3.                 They are more suitable for young children who have poor vocabulary.

4.                 They are more reliable per unit of testing item.

5.                 They can be scored objectively.

6.                 They are adaptable to most content areas.

7.                 They are early to construct.

8.                 They are time savers.

9.                 They provide simple and direct means for measuring the out comes of formed instruction.

LIMITATIONS

1.                 Generally they emphasis rote memorization.

2.                 The examinees are not required to apply principles to new

situations.

3.                 These are only two choices, they allow a high degree of guessing.

4.                 They may motivate students to study and accept only over

simplified statements of facture details.

5.                 There can be attempted even by those who know nothing of

the subject matter.

6.                 They are largely limited to learning out comes in the knowledge domain.

SUGGESTIONS FOR TRUE OR FALSE ITEMS.

1.                 Be sure that the item as written can be classified unequivocally as aided true or false.

2.                 Avoid ambiguous and indefinite terms of degree or amount.

3.                 Keep true or false statements approximately equal in length.

4.                 Employ a random occurrence of true or false statements to avoid giving irrelevant clues.

5.                 Avoid double negative statements.

6.                 The direction regarding the answers should be very clear.

7.                 Long and complex statements should not be used because they measure regarding. Comprehensive also and which may not be the objective of the examiner.

MATCHING TYPE TEST ITEM

N.E. Gronlund (1985), “The matching exercise consists of two parallel columns with each word, number or symbol in one column being matched to a word, a sentence or phrase in the other column. The items in the column for which match is sought are called premises and the items in the column from which the selection is made are called responses.

There are several varieties of matching tests. In the traditional format of a matching test consists of two column. The examinee is required to make some sort of association between each premise and each response in the two columns he pairs the corresponding elements and records his answers.

MERITS OF MATCHING TESTS

1.                           Many questions can be asked in limited time between they

require little reading time.

2.                           Reliability of the test increases as they afford as an opportunity to have a large sampling of the content.

3.                           Scoring is comparatively easier.

4.                           Matching test can be constructed relatively easily and quickly.

5.                           There is less scope for guessing as compared with true –

false tests

6.                           A good deal of space can be saved.

LIMITATIONS

1.                                         They are not well adapted testing for the acquision of

knowledge or understanding of and ability to use relatively complete interpretive ideas.

2.                                         They may encourage serial memorization rather than

association is sufficient care is not taken in their construction.

3.                                         Generally they provide clues.

4.                                         It is at times difficult to get dusters of questions that are

sufficiently similar questions that a common set of response can be used.

SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSTRUCTING

MATCHING TESTS

1.                                         Keep each lists relatively short.

2.                                         Each matching tests should consists of homogeneous

items.

3.                                         Avoid an equal members of premises and responses.

4.                                         All items of the tests should be on the same page.

5.                                         Do not more statements or responses highly dissimilar in

character.

6.                                         Avoid using matching tests for testing small units of the

subject matter

MULTIPLE CHOICE TYPE TEST ITEM

“ According ti N.E Gronlund (1985)”A multiple choice

item consists of a problem and lists suggested solutions. The problem may be stated as direct acquisition or an incomplete statements and is called the stern of item. The tent of suggested solutions may include words numbers, symbols or phrases and are called alternatives. The pupil is typically requested to read the stem and the list of alternatives and to select the one correct or best alternative” A multiple item of two parts.

1.                The “stem” which contains the problem.

2.                Options or responses it list of suggested answers. The stem be stated as direct question or an incomplete statements.

FORMS OF MULTIPLE TESTS

a)                 The correct answer form

It contains three or more choices but only one of them is correct.

b)                 The best answer form

One or more all choices may be correct but one of them is the best answer the examine is required to select the best one.

c)                  The multiple response them

The correct answers may consist of more than one choices and the examine is asked to identify all those which are correct.

d)                 The complete statement form the stem is incomplete and can be completed by the correct choice. The examinee is asked to select one.

e)                  The substitution form

The word outline the stem is to the substituted by the

correct response. Responses are given are the examinee is asked to select one which can substitute the desired word.

f)                   The combined response form

The choices are different spaces or sentence or paragraph.

The examinee required to correct order of the phrases or sentences.

MERITS OF MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEM

1.                 They can measure cognitive levels better than true false items because examine do not score for merely knowing whether the statement is true or false but for knowing which is the correct answer.

2.                 They can measure from the most element the knowledge lent to the most complex level.

3.                 A substantial amount of the subject matter can be tested because the examinees do not require much time for righting the answer.

4.                 They are objective in scoring because they key for the correct answer is prepared along with the test.

5.                 They reduce the effect of guessing because there are three or four choices.

6.                 Their format is helpful in item analysis to find out he areas of weakness of the examinee.

7.                 They can be easily adopted for machine scoring.

LIMITATIONS

1.               They donot permit the exminees to express their own views

2.               They cannot measure attitudes or motor skills .

3.               It is difficult to find four choices for each item out of which thir may be plausible in correct answers.

4.               they cannot evaluate the ability to organize any present ideas.

5.               They require more time to construct.

6.               They check only limited knowledge

SUGGESTIONS FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE

QUESTION

1.                 Be sure the stem of the item clearly formulates a problem

2.                 Include as mush of the item as possible in the stem and keep options as short as possible.

3.                 Include in the stem only the metric required to make the problem clear and specific.

4.                 us e the negative sparing the amid stem of the item

5.                 Repetition of words in the options should be avoided

6.                 Unfamiliar and difficult symbols and vocabulary should avoided.

MERITS OF OBJECTIVE TYPE TEST.

1.                 The new type examinations are motive objective in their scoring they are free from personal factor of the teacher.

2.                 They may be very comprehensive and can be made to cover  a great deal more material than the old type of examinations

3.                 They are very easy to score.

4.                 They are more education for the pupils.

5.                 It discourage examine and encourage thinking observation and scrutiny

6.                 They are more reliable

7.                 Objective tests can be standardized by applying before hand to a large numbers of students of the same age group before the actual examination

LIMITATIONS

1.                 The pupil does not have an opportunity to show his ability to organize his thoughts .

This type of tests are not diagnostic in that they do not tell where the pupils reasoning process goes wrong or where he stops reasoning all together and starts guessing.

2.                 It is commonly said that this type of tests fail to check cramming

Short Answer Questions

Short-answer questions are open-ended questions that require students to create an answer. They are commonly used in examinations to assess the basic knowledge and understanding (low cognitive levels) of a topic before more in-depth assessment questions are asked on the topic. Short Answer Questions do not have a generic structure. Questions may require answers such as complete the sentence, supply the missing word, short descriptive or qualitative answers, diagrams with explanations etc. The answer is usually short, from one word to a few lines. Often students may answer in bullet form.

Advantages of Short Answer Questions

§  Short Answer Questions are relatively fast to mark and can be marked by different assessors, as long as the questions are set in such a way that all alternative answers can be considered by the assessors.

§  Short Answer Questions are also relatively easy to set compared to many assessment methods.

§  Short Answer Questions can be used as part of a formative and summative assessment, as the structure of short answer questions are very similar to examination questions, students are more familiar with the practice and feel less anxious.

§  Unlike MCQs, there is no guessing on answers, students must supply an answer.

Disadvantages of Short Answer Questions

§  Short Answer Questions (SAQ) are only suitable for questions that can be answered with short responses. It is very important that the assessor is very clear on the type of answers expected when setting the questions, because SAQ is an open-ended questions, students are free to answer any way they choose, short-answer questions can lead to difficulties in grading if the question is not worded carefully.

§  Short Answer Questions are typically used for assessing knowledge only, students may often memorize Short Answer Questions with rote learning. If assessors wish to use Short Answer Questions to assess deeper learning, careful attention (and many practices) on appropriate questions are required.

§  Accuracy of assessment may be influenced by handwriting/spelling skills

§  There can be time management issues when answering Short Answer Questions

Design A Good Short Answer Question

§  Design short answer items which are appropriate assessment of the learning objective

§  Make sure the content of the short answer question measures knowledge appropriate to the desired learning goal

§  Express the questions with clear wordings and language which are appropriate to the student population

§  Ensure there is only one clearly correct answer in each question

§  Ensure that the item clearly specifies how the question should be answered (e.g. Student should answer it briefly and concisely using a single word or short phrase? Is the question given a specific number of blanks for students to answer?)

§  Consider whether the positioning of the item blank promote efficient scoring

§  Write the instructions clearly so as to specify the desired knowledge and specificity of response

§  Set the questions explicitly and precisely.

§  Direct questions are better than those which require completing the sentences.

§  For numerical answers, let the students know if they will receive marks for showing partial work (process based) or only the results (product based), also indicated the importance of the units.

§  Let the students know what your marking style is like, is bullet point format acceptable, or does it have to be an essay format?

§  Prepare a structured marking sheet; allocate marks or part-marks for acceptable answer(s).

§  Be prepared to accept other equally acceptable answers, some of which you may not have predicted.

ESSAY TYPE TEST

          The word essay has been derived from a French word ‘essayer’ which means ‘to try’ or ‘to attempt’.

          “Essay test is a test that requires the student to structure a rather long written response up to several paragraphs.”                                                              -William weirsama

The essay test refers to any written test that requires the examinee to write a sentence, a paragraph or longer passages. Essay questions provide a complex prompt that requires written responses, which can vary in length from a couple of paragraphs to many pages. Like short answer questions, they provide students with an opportunity to explain their understanding and demonstrate creativity, but make it hard for students to arrive at an acceptable answer by bluffing. They can be constructed reasonably quickly and easily but marking these questions can be time-consuming and grader agreement can be difficult.

Essay questions differ from short answer questions in that the essay questions are less structured. This openness allows students to demonstrate that they can integrate the course material in creative ways. As a result, essays are a favoured approach to test higher levels of cognition including analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Characteristics of essay test:

1.       The length of the required responses varies with reference to marks and time

2.     It demands a subjective judgment: Judgment means making judgment or assessing whereas subjective means not fair enough i.e. it differs from person to person.

3.     Most familiar and widely used:Essay has become a major part of a formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essays format to improve their writing skills.

Types of Essay Test

1.       Restricted response questions:

The restricted response question usually limits both the content and the response the content is usually restricted by the scope of the topic to be discussed limitations on the form of response are generally indicated in the question another way of restricting responses in essay tests is to base the questions on specific problems. For this purpose, introductory material like that used in interpretive exercises can be presented. Such items differ from objective interpretive exercise only by the fact that essay questions are used instead of multiple choice or true or false items. Because the restricted response question is more structured it is most useful for measuring learning outcomes requiring the interpretation and application of date in a specific area.

2.     Extended response questions:

No restriction is placed in students as to the points he will discuss and the type of organization he will use. Teachers in such a way so as to give students the maximum possible freedom to determine the nature and scope of question and in a way he would give response of course being related topic and in stipulated time frame these types of questions.

The student may be select the points he thinks are most important, pertinent and relevant to his points and arrangement and organize the answers in whichever way he wishes. So they are also called free response questions. This enables the teacher to judge the student’s abilities to organize, integrate, interpret the material and express themselves in their own words. It also gives an opportunity to comment or look into students’ progress, quality of their thinking, the depth of their understanding problem solving skills and the difficulties they may be having. These skills interact with each other with the knowledge and understanding the problem requires. Thus it is at the levels of synthesis and evaluation of writing skills that this type of questions makes the greatest contribution.

Merits of essay writing:

1. It is relatively easier to prepare and administer a six-question extended response essay test than to prepare and administer a comparable 60 item multiple choice test items.

2.     It is the only means that can assess an examinee’s ability to organize and present his ideas in a logical and coherent fashion and in effective prose.

3.     It can be successfully employed for practically all school subjects.

4.     Some of the objectives – such as ability to organize idea effectively ability to criticize or justify a statement, ability to criticize or justify a statement, ability to interpret etc. can be measured by this type of test.

5.     Logical thinking and critical reasoning, systematic presentation etc. can be best developed by this type of test.

6.     Its helps induce good study habits such as making outlines and summaries, organizing the arguments for and against, etc.

7.     The student can show their initiative, the originality of their thought and the fertility of their imagination, as they are permitted freedom of response.

8.     The response of the students need not be completely right or wrong. All degrees of comprehensiveness and accuracy are possible.

9.     It largely eliminates guessing.

Demerits of essay writing:

          Every coin has 2 sides same ways in essay test if there are merits than demerits are also there so we will see demerits of essay test writing.

1.       Limited sampling of the content: -

It means few questions can be included in given test. Example if in one particular book 18 chapter are given, teacher cannot ask question from all the chapters. They have to neglect some areas.

2.     Subjectivity of scoring:

If all students are writing same answer of one question, why they get different marks? In essay test answer of question are scored differently by different teacher. Even the same teacher scores the answer differently at different times.

3.     Halo effects:

It means teacher knows the particular student very well and has good impression because of his previous paper and writing skills.

4.     Mood of the examiner:

The general feeling of all students after writing your S.S.C board paper what you had discussed with your fried. I hope the teacher who is checking my paper has not quarreled with some”

5.     Ambiguous wording of the question:

Sometime essay questions are so worded that students do not know the exact implications of the questions.

6.     Examiner contaminated by various factors:

The examiner is contaminated by various factors like hand writing, spelling, grammar etc some students who has good verbal knowledge may write many things on an essay topic.

7.     It requires an excessive time on the part of students to write while assessing reading essays is very time-consuming and laborious.

8.     Only a teacher or competent professionals can assess it.

9.     The speed of writing can influence the performance of the learner. This results in low scores even if the learner may know the correct answer of all questions.

10.  It may not provide a true picture of the comprehension level of the leaner. Grammars may get good marks.

Suggestions for improving essay questions:

1.       Restrict the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes that cannot be satisfactorily measured by objective items. Such functions as ability to organize’ to express, to interpret and to elicit understanding may be tested through essay questions.

2.     Do not start the essay questions with words such as what, who, when, enumerate etc. in general start with compare, contrast, discuss, explain etc.

3.     Write the essay question in such a way that the task is clearly and unambiguously defined for each examinee.

4.     Directions for the test should be explicitly written.

For example, (a) each question carries 20 marks (b) Marks will be deducted for spelling mistakes.

5.     Avoid the use of optional questions. A fairly common practice in the use of essay questions is to provide pupils with more questions than they are expected to answer. When pupils answer different questions, it is obvious they are taking different test and the common basis for evaluating their achievement is lost.

6.     Students are found to be misinformed about the meaning of important terms used in essay questions. For example: students frequently discuss or describe when asked to define. A solution would be to supply the necessary training to the students in writing essay questions.

7.     Allow liberal time limit so that the essay test will not be a test of speed of writing. While setting up the question paper s that it can be answered in the allotted time, leaving some time for reading the question, drawing up an outline of the answers and finally for revision.

8.     We have seen that the essay examination suffers from lack of adequate sampling. This defect can to some extent be overcome by increasing the number of questions any limiting the length of their answers. A question paper with 10 questions would represent a better sample than one with 5 questions only.

9.     One of the favourite questions of examiners is :

for example: write short notes on: 1. Social education. 2. Homework.

          This type of question is worse than the one mentioned in above. The student dos not know the limits and he goes on writing pages after pages. The better way to write is e.g. write short notes on (a) objectives of social education (b) misuse of homework.