G RACE MISSION COLLEGE

ASSESSMENT LEARNING 1

NOTES IV

DISTINGUISHING AND CONSTRUCTING VARIOUSE PAPER-AND-PENCIL-TESTS

PLANNING A TEST AND CONSTUCTION OF TABLE OF SPECIFICATION (TOS)

The important steps in panning for a test are:

 Identifying tests objectives/lesson outcomes

 Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared
 Preparing a Table of Specifications (TOS)
 Constructing the draft test items.
 Try-out and validation.

IDENTIFYING TEST OBJECTIVES

- An objective test, if it is to be comprehensive, must cover the various levels of

Bloom’s Taxonomy.
- Each objective consists of a statement of what is to be achieved preferably by
the students.
- For example, we want to construct a test on the topic; “Subject-Verb Agreement
in English” for a Grade V class

The following are typical objectives:

1. Knowledge/Remembering- the students must be able to identify the subject

and the verb in a given sentence.
2. Comprehension/Understanding- the students must be able to determine
the appropriate form of a verb to be used given the subject of a sentence.
3. Application/ Applying- the students must be able to write sentences
observing rules on subject-verb agreement.
4. Analysis/Analyzing- the students must be able to break down a given
sentence into subject and predicate.

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 5. Evaluation/Evaluating- the students must be able to evaluate whether or not
a sentence observes rules on subject-vert agreement.
6. Synthesis/Creating- the students must be able to formulate rules to be
followed regarding subject-verb agreement.
a. Deciding on the type of objective test- the test objectives guide the kind of
objective tests that will be designed and constructed by the teacher.
- this means aligning the test with the lesson objective/outcome
b. Preparing a table of specifications (TOS)- a Table of Specifications or TOS is
a test map that guides the teacher in constructing a test.
- The TOS ensures that there is balance between items that test lower-level
thinking skills and those which test higher order thinking skills in the test.
- The simplest TOS consists of four (4) columns:
a. level of objective to be tested
b. statement of objective
c. item numbers where such as an objective is being tested
d. number of items and percentage out of the total for that particular objective.
c. Constructing the test items- the actual construction of the test items follows the
TOS.
- As a general rule, it is advised that the actual number of items to be constructed
in the draft should be double the desired number of items.
- For instance, if there are five (5) recall level items to be included in the final test
form, then at least ten (10) recall level items should be included in the final test
form, then at least ten (10) recall level items should be included in the draft.
d. Item Analysis and Try-Out- the test draft is tried out to a group of pupils or
students.
- The purpose of this try-out is to determine the: (a) item characteristics through
item analysis, (b) characteristics of the test itself- validity, reliability and
practicality.

TYPES OF PAPER-AND-PENCIL TEST

- Development of paper-and-pencil tests requires careful planning and expertise in

terms of actual test construction.

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 - The more seasoned teachers can produce true-false items that can test even
higher order thinking skills and not just rote memory learning.
- Essays are easier to construct than the other types of objective test, but the
difficulty in scoring essay examinations teachers from using this particular from
using this particular form of examination in actual practice.

CONSTRUCTING SELECTED-RESPONSE TYPE

A. TRUE-FALSE TEST
- Binomial-choice or alternate response tests- are tests that have only two (2)
options such as true of false, right or wrong, yes or no, good or better.

Guidelines for Constructing Alternate-Response Test

1. Do not give a hint (inadvertently) in the body of the question

2. Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often” and other words that tend to be
either always true or always false.
3. Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”. Keep sentences short.
4. Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or spelling anomaly;
misplaces phrases, etc. A wise student who does not know the subject matter
mat detect this strategy and thus get the answer correctly.
5. Avoid quoting verbatim from reference materials or textbooks, This practice
sends the wrong signal to the students that it is necessary to memorize the
textbook word for word and, thus, acquisition of higher level thinking skills is not
given due importance.
6. Avoid specific determiners or give-away qualifiers. Students quickly learn that
strongly worded statements are more likely to be false than true.
7. With true or false questions, avoid grossly disproportionate number of either true
or false statements or even patterns in the occurrence of true and false
statements.
8. Avoid double negatives. This makes test item unclear and definitely will confuse
the student.
B. MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS
- The multiple-choice type of test offers the student with more than two (2) options
per item to choose from.

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 - Each item in a multiple-choice test consists of two parts: (a) the stem and (b) the
options.
- In the set of options, there is a “correct” or “best” option while all the others are
considered “distracters”
- The distracters are chosen in such a way that they are attractive to those who do
not know the answer or who are guessing but at the same time, have no appeal
to those who actually know the answer.

Guidelines for Constructing Multiple Choice Items

1. Do not use unfamiliar words, terms and phrases- the ability of the item to
discriminate or its level of difficulty should stem from the subject matter rather
than from the wording of the question.
2. Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ from
one person to the next such as” much, often, usually, etc. – the qualifier
“much” is vague and could have been replaced by more specific qualifiers like:
“90% of the photosynthetic process” or similar phrase that would be more
precise. Be quantitative.
3. Avoid complex ore awkward word arrangements. Also, avoid use of negatives in
the stem as this may add unnecessary comprehension difficulties.
4. Do not use negatives or double negatives as such statements tend to be
confusing. It is best to use simpler sentences rather than sentence that would
require expertise in grammatical construction.
5. Each statement should be as short as possible; otherwise, you risk testing more
for reading and comprehension skills.
6. Distracters should be equally plausible and attractive.
7. All multiple-choice options should be grammatically consistent with the stem.
8. The length, explicitness, or degree of technicality of alternatives should not be
the determinants of the correctness of the answer.
9. Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item.
10. Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with others or those that include or
overlap others.
11. Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same order as in the test.

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 12. Avoid use of assumed qualifiers that examinees may not be aware of.
13. Avoid use of unnecessary words or phrases which are not relevant to the
problem at hand (unless such as discriminating ability is the primary intent of the
evaluation.
- The item’s value is particularly damaged if the unnecessary material is designed
to distract or mislead. Such items test the student’s reading comprehension
rather than knowledge of the subject matter.
14. Avoid use of non-relevant sources of difficulty such as requiring a complex
calculation when only knowledge of a principle is being tested.
15. Pack the question in the stem.
16. Use the “None of the above” option only when the keyed answer is totally
correct. When choice of the “best” response is intended, “none of the above” is
not appropriate, since the implication has already been made that the correct
response may be partially inaccurate.
17. Note that use of “all of the above” may allow credit for partial knowledge. In a
multiple option item, (allowing only one option choice) if a student only knew that
the two (2) options were correct, he could then deduce the correctness of “all of
the above”. This assumes you are allowed only one correct choice.
18. Better still use “none of the above” and “all of the above” sparingly but best not
to use them at all.
19. Having compound response choices may purposefully increase difficulty of an
item.
C. MATCHING TYPE
- The matching type items may be considered modified multiple choice type items
where the choices progressively reduce as one successfully matches the items
on the left with the items on the right.

Guidelines for Constructing Matching Type of Test.

1. Match homogenous not heterogenous items.

- The items to match must be homogenous.
2. The stem (longer in construction than the options) must be in the first column
while the options (usually shorter) must be in the second column.

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 3. The options must be more in number than the stems to prevent the student from
arriving at the answer by mere process of elimination.
4. To help the examinees find the answer easier, arrange the options alphabetically
or chronologically, whichever is applicable.
5. Like any other test, the direction of the test must be given. The examinees must
know exactly what to do.

CONSTRUCTING SUPPLY TYPE OR CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE TYPE

- Another useful device for testing lower order thinking skills is the supply type of
tests.
- Like the multiple-choice test, the items in this kind of test consists of a stem and
a blank where the students would write the correct answer.

COMPLETION TYPE OF TEST

- Construct supply type of tests that will test higher order thinking.

Guidelines for the Formulation of a Completion Type of Test

1. Avoid overmutilated sentences like this test item. Give enough clue to the
student.
2. Avoid open-ended item. There should be only one acceptable answer. This item
is open-ended, hence no good test item.
3. The blank should be at the end or near the end of the sentence. The question
must first be asked before an answer is expected. Like the matching type of test,
the stem (where the question is packed) must be in the first column.
4. Ask question on more significant item not on trivial matter.
5. The length of the blanks must not suggest the answer. So better to make the
blanks uniform in size.
D. ESSAYS
- Classified as non-objective tests, allow for the assessment of higher order
thinking skills.
- Such test requires students to organize their thoughts on a subject matter in
coherent sentences in order to inform an audience

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 - In essay tests, students are required to write one or more paragraphs on a
specific topic.
- Essay questions can be used to measure attainment of a variety of objectives.
1. Comparing
- Describe the similarities and differences between.
- Compare the following methods for..
2. Relating cause-and-effect
- What are the major cause of….
- What would be the most likely effects of…
3. Justifying
- Which of following alternatives would you favor and why?
- Explain why you agree or disagree with the following statement.
4. Summarizing
- State the points included in…
- Briefly summarize the contents of..
5. Generalizing
- Formulate several valid generalizations from the following data.
- State a set of principles that can explain the following events.
6. Inferring
- In the light of the facts presented, what is most likely to happens when..
- How would Senator X be most likely to react to the bomb explosion after the bar
examination last September?
7. Classifying
- Group the following items according to..
- What do the following items have in common?
8. Applying
- Using the principles of ____ as guide, describe how you would solve the
following problem situation.
- Describe a situation that illustrates the principle of____
9. Analyzing
- Describe the reasoning errors in the following paragraphs
- List and describe the main characteristics of….

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 10. Evaluating
- Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the following…
- Using the criteria developed in class, write an evaluation of…
11. Creating
- Make up a story describing what would happen if…
- Design a plan to prove that…
- Write a well-organized report that shows…

TYPES OF ESSAY

1. RESTRICTED ESSAY- it is also referred to as short response. Examples are

asking students to “write an example”.
2. NON-RESTRICTED/EXTENDED ESSAY- extended responses can be much
longer and complex than short responses, but students are encouraged to
remain focused and organized.

Guidelines for the Formulation and Scoring of Essay Tests

Rule I-Phrase the direction in such a way that students are guided on the key concepts
to be included. Specify how the students should respond.

Rule II- Inform the students on the criteria to be used for grading their essays. This rule
allows the students to focus on relevant and substantive materials rather than on
peripheral and unnecessary facts and bits of information.

Rule III- Put a time limit on the essay test.

Rule IV- Decide on your essay grading system prior to getting the essays of your
students.

Rule V- Evaluate all the students’ answers to one question before proceeding to the
next question.

Rule VI- Evaluate answers to essay questions without knowing the identity of the writer.

Rule VII-whenever possible, have two or more persons grade each answer.

Rule VIII-Do not provide optional questions.

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Rule IX- provide information about the value/weight of the question and how it will be
scored.

Rule X- emphasize higher level thinking skills.

Prepared By: Rea Jane F. Ornedo