guidelines in test constructions

8/12/2019 guidelines in test constructions

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GUIDELINES IN OBJECTIVE

TEST CONSTRUCTIONS

True -False Items



True False Guideline 1

~Do not give a hint in the body of the question.~

• Teachers should not give any ideas in the statement inwhich the students may get the answer easily, as they do nothave to depend on their knowledge to get the answer.



Example:

The Philippines gained its independence in 1898and therefore celebrated its centennial year in 2000.

~As you can see, obviously the answer is FALSEbecause 100 years from 1898 is not 2000 but1998.




~You must avoid using the words “always”, “never” ,“often” or other adverb that tend to be always

TRUE or always FALSE.~

• Teachers should not use the words „always‟ „never‟ „often‟ or other adverb as these words might likely help thestudents to guess the answer although they do not have theknowledge at all.



Example:

Christmas always falls on Sunday because itis a Sabbath day.

~Statement that use the words “always” are

almost always false. A test-wise pupil can easilyguess his way through a test like. He maybe getshigh scores even he does not know anything aboutthe test.




~Avoid long sentences.~

Long sentences can tend to be TRUE.Example:

Test need to be valid, reliable, and useful although,

it would require a great amount and effort toensure that test possess these test characteristic.

- We notice that the statement is TRUE. However

we are not sure which part of the sentences isdeemed TRUE by the pupil.



- The following example illustrate what can go wrong inlong sentences.

Example :

Test need to be valid, reliable, and useful since ittakes very little amount of time, money and effort

to construct test with these characteristic.

- The first part of the sentences is true but the second part isdebatable and may, in fact, FALSE. Thus a TRUEresponse is correct and also a FALSE response iscorrect.




~Avoid trick statements.~

~Trick statements with some minor misleading word or

spelling anomaly, misplaced phrases, and others. A wisepupil who does not know about the subject matter maydetect this strategy and thus and get the answercorrectly.



Example:

The principle of our school is Encik Razman b.

Khalid. ~As you can see from the example the principal‟s name mayactually be correct but since the word is misspelled and theentire sentence takes different meaning.

~So, the answer is FALSE.~This is an example of a tricky but utterly useless item.




~Avoid lifting statements right from the textbook.~

~This practice sends wrong signal that is necessary to

memorize the textbook word for word and thus, acquisition ofhigher thinking skills are not given importance.




~Avoid specific determiners or give-away qualifiers.~

~Pupils quickly learn that strongly worded statements are more likely to

be FALSE than TRUE. For example, statements with “never” “no”

“all” or “always”. Moderately worded statements are more likely to beTRUE than FALSE. For example, statements with “many” “often”

“sometime” “generally” “frequently” or“some” should be avoided.



Sample of Violation



Explanation…

~This sample was taken from Year 2 activity book, I

believe there is a violation in this test item. The word

“All hibiscus….” using in statement no.4 will help the

students identify the answer easily.



Sample of Violation

In this sample taken from

the same activity book, the

patterns of the statement

arrangement can make

students easily guess the

answer.



GUIDELINES IN SUBJECTIVE

TEST CONSTRUCTIONS

Short Essay Items



Short Essay Guideline 1

Relate the questions as directly as possible to thelearning outcomes being measured.

~Teachers should give the criteria to be used in evaluatingthe answer. For example, teachers may add a parentheticalstatement as the following: “Your answer will be evaluated interms of its comprehensiveness, the relevance of itsarguments, the appropriateness of its examples, and the skillwith which it is organized.” This clarifies the task to thestudents without limiting their freedom, and makes the itemeasier to relate to clearly defined learning outcomes.



Sample of violation

• In this sample which is taken

from English Paper 2 UPSR

workbook, the rubric does not

contain the criteria that will be

taken into consideration in

examining this question.




~Provide students with the approximate time to beexpended on each item as well as the item’s value .~

~Teachers or the questions‟ maker should provide the

approximate time to be expended on the question so thatstudents could manage their time accordingly and this willavoid them spending too much time on one item while there aremore questions to be attended. Item‟s value should also beincluded so that students are able to include as many pointsas they targeted.



Sample of violation

• In this sample taken from

English Paper 2 Year 5

workbook, it is clearly seen

that there is no approximate

time to be expended for this

question as well as the item

value.




~Formulate questions that present a clear task to beperformed. Complex achievement is most apt to becalled forth by such words as “why,” “describe,”

“explain,” “compare", "relate,” “contrast,” “interpret,” analyse,” “criticize,” and “evaluate.”~

~ Questions‟ maker should formulate the questions clearly sothat the students know what to be included in the essay,otherwise their essay might not get to the point the examinerwas expected.




~Avoid optionality- Choice can create significantlydifferent assessment content and difficulty.~

~Questions‟ maker should no put the students into dilemma by

providing options for them to choose. The assessment mightbe hard to be done and marks given could be unfair because of

the different content and choices.



Sample of violation

• In this sample, the

phrase “you may

use….” has created the

optionality where the

students might present

their answers differently.



Short Essay Guideline 5~Avoid using essay questions for intended learning

outcomes that are better assessed with other kinds ofassessment.~

~Some types of learning outcomes can be more efficiently and

more reliably assessed with selected-response questions than

with essay questions. Some complex learning outcomes can be

more directly assessed with performance assessment than with

essay questions. Since essay questions sample a limited range

of subject-matter content, the use of essay questions should

be reserved for learning outcomes that cannot be better

assessed by some other ways.

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