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The major form of summative evaluation we used
in the classroom is the test, or exam. Often
scheduled at the end of a unit of study, or a
semester, tests usually cover several objectives to
determine how much students are learning and
understanding. Teachers can tailor tests to
emphasize the information they consider important
and to match the ability levels of their students.
If carefully constructed, classroom tests can
provide teachers with accurate and useful
information about the knowledge retained by their
students.
Test construction involves designing the test,
writing the questions, and checking the test for
possible inaccuracies or problems.
In your Blackboard course you will find a
handout called Create Test. Be sure to go
through this handout to learn how easy it is to
generate test questions using the SampQuest
document and inserting one document into another.
It's such a handy tip!
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STEP 1. DESIGN THE
TEST
The first step in constructing a test is to
identify what you want students to learn from a
unit of instruction. Consider the relative
importance of the objectives and include more
questions about the most important learning
objectives. Be careful not to focus exclusively on
a few objectives while excluding others preventing
students from having the opportunity to demonstrate
their understanding of other aspects of the
material.
The learning objectives that you choose will
determine the form of the test. For example, to
adequately test students writing, allow sufficient
time for them to develop ideas, engage in
pre-writing, compose and revise their work. The
types of questions you use will also depend on the
learning objectives. You must decide if you want to
include fill-in-the-blank, true-false, multiple
choice, matching, short answer or essay question s
in your test.
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STEP 2. WRITE THE
QUESTIONS
While the different types of questions--multiple
choice, fill-in-the-blank or short answer,
true-false, matching, and essay--are constructed
differently, the following principles apply to
constructing questions and tests in general.
- Make the instructions for each type
of question simple and brief.
- Use simple and clear language in the
questions.
- Write items that require specific
understanding presented in your class.
- Be careful to not suggest the answer to one
question in the body of another question.
- Do not write questions in the negative.
- Specify the units and precision of
answers.
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Multiple Choice
Questions
Multiple-choice questions are the most commonly
used type of question in test construction because
they are more easily and objectively graded than
essay questions, and are more difficult to answer
correctly without the required knowledge than
true-false questions. Multiple-choice questions,
however, are probably the most difficult type of
question to construct. The following are a few
guidelines for multiple-choice question
construction.
- State clearly in the instructions
whether you require the correct answer or the
best answer to each item.
- Do not repeat words in each alternative,
include these words in the main body of the
question.
- Make incorrect alternatives attractive to
students who have not achieved the targeted
learning objectives.
- Vary randomly the placement of correct
responses
- Make all choices exactly parallel. Novice
test writers tend to make the correct answer
longer and more carefully worded and, by doing
so, may provide a clue to the correct
answer.
- Control the difficulty of a question by
making the alternatives more or less similar or
by making the main part of the question more or
less specific.
STEP 3. FINAL
CHECK
Take the time to review the test. Are the
instructions clear? Are the selected learning
objectives represented in appropriate proportions?
Are the questions carefully and clearly worded?
Poorly constructed questions may actually measure
not knowledge, but test-taking ability.
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