Test construction and the different types of test questions
Test Writing
 Tests are generally used to determine students’ grades- marks.
 Help students recognize their strengths and weaknesses in the subject.
 Help you to access the quality of your teaching and make corrections
as you go on.
 Determine the different learning levels of your students.
Common Students Complaints
 “For hours I studied material that was hardly covered on the exam!”
 “I didn’t know what was going to be on the exam!”
 “The test had nothing to do with the classes!”
 “The test required more skills than those taught in class!”
The Learning Cycle
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Test Plan
 What objectives do you want to cover?
 How difficult should you make the test?
 Who is taking the test?
 How much time has been provided for testing?
 How many questions should you have on your test?
 What type of questions should be included in the test?
Questions Sources
 You own class notes. Particular emphasis on examples and homework
well covered.
 Exercises in the textbook or close related text.
 Old exams that you had administered in the past.
 Tests from other instructors.
In all cases, revise the items carefully and try to adapt them to your
overall teaching approach during the current semester.
Planning the Test
Step1: Teacher uses course objectives to develop test
items by considering the following:
1. The course content or objectives
2. The thinking skills that an instructor wishes to develop in students
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Knowledge
1 Remembering facts, terms, and principles
2 No real understanding is implied at this level
Comprehension
3 Relating facts to each other and the generalization of facts
4 Understanding
2
Application
5 Requiring students to use information and ideas and demonstrate that
they comprehend this information in a concrete situation
Analysis
6 Determining the structure of something; breaking something down
into its component parts
Synthesis
7 Using a number of facts together to come up with the solution to a
problem or the creation of something new (writing)
Evaluation
8 Making judgments about the value of material for specified purposes
Step 2: Assign relative weights
1-How much time was devoted to each content area during instruction?
2- How much time was devoted to each educational objective during
i n s t ru c t i o n ?
2- Which thinking skills were emphasized during instruction?
Step 3: Determine the actual number of test items that
should be constructed for each category
Step 4: Write the actual test items
Different types of test Items The focus of this
lecture
1. True or False
True/False best suited for:
1 knowledge level learning
2 understanding of popular misconceptions
3 when 2 logical responses are possible
3
Advantages
4 Answer many questions in short time
5 Relatively easy to construct
Disadvantages
6 Easy; might not discriminate well
7 50-50 chance of correct guess
8 Low in reliability
Rules for constructing true/false
Rule 1: Avoid double negatives
Rule 2: Avoid long or complex statements
Rule 3: Specific determiners should be used with caution
Rule 4: Include only one central idea is each statement
Rule 5: Avoid emphasizing the trivial parts
Rule 6: Controversial issues should not be used
Rule 7: The test should consist of a greater number of false than true
statements
2. Matching
Matching best suited for:
1- knowledge level learning of the who, what, when, where variety
2- certain comprehension-level outcomes
Types of Matching
Terms or words
with
Definitions
Symbols
with
Names
Causes
with
Effects
Problems
with
Solution
Parts
with
Unit to which they
belong
Advantages
3 Maximum coverage of knowledge level learning with a minimum of
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space and preparation time
4 Valuable in subject fields in which a great variety of facts must be
learned
Disadvantages
5 Time-consuming for the student
6 Not well suited for measuring higher level learning outcomes
3. Multiple-Choice (stem and responses or distractors )
Multiple choice is considered by experts to be the most effective of all the
test items.
Advantages
- It can be used with different knowledge areas and skills
-Compromise between essay and true/false
-Guessing is reduced
-Minimum writing
-Wide range of content can be covered on one test
Disadvantages
- Difficult to construct
- quality and quantity of distracters
- Time-consuming to construct
Forms of Multiple Choice
- Question Form - the stem is stated in the form of a question
- Incomplete Statement Form - student identifies the remaining part of an
incomplete statement
- Right Answer Form - student identifies the one and only correct answer
-Best Answer Form - student selects the best answer from a series of
possible answers. It requires student to use judgment,
reasoning, and other types of understanding.
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The different Alternatives in Multiple Choice items should be
-listed on separate lines
- indented four spaces from the stem
- separated from the stem by a blank line
- identified by letters rather than numbers
4. Fill-in the ______, Completion, or Short-answer
In Writing Fill-in, Completion or Short-Answer Items, the Item is
usually a question or incomplete statement and Response is usually a
word, number, short phrase, or sentence.
Advantages
- Easy to construct
- Excellent for who, what, when and where information
- Minimizes guessing correctly
- Encourages more intensive study by student.
Disadvantages
-Instructor may use to many since they are easy to construct and
therefore, over emphasizes memorization of facts
- More than one answer may be correct
- Scoring may be difficult
5. Essays
Essays are more effective at the higher levels of learning to test
synthesis and evaluation.
Advantages
- Easy to construct
- Demonstrates students’ ability to organize knowledge, express opinions
and show originality
- Minimizes guessing correctly
- Stimulates superior study methods.
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Disadvantages
- Limited sampling of the material covered
- Inadequate scoring key can make the scoring subjective and unreliable
- Scoring may be extremely time-consuming
Extended Response Essay
Gives the student a great deal of freedom in how to respond to the
question
Restricted Response Essay
- Places limits or boundaries on how the student should respond
- Allows the scorer to be more consistent
- Question is stated more clearly
Rules for Constructing Essay Questions
Rule 1: Use essays to measure analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Rule 2: Provide reasonable time limits for each question.
Rule 3: Avoid permitting students a choice of questions.
Rule 4: Be sure essay questions have a definitive task.
1 Underline critical words such as “compare,” “contrast,” “criticize,”
and “evaluate.”
2 Break the question down into the major areas to be covered.
Rule 5: Score restricted response answers by the “checklist point
method” using a model answer as a guide.
1 Write an outline or model answer for each question.
2 Determine how many points are to be assigned to the question as a
whole and its various parts.
Rule 6: Score the essay without the knowledge of the name of the
student.
Rule 7: Score all of the students’ answers to one question before moving
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to the next question.
Rule 8: Don’t let scoring be influenced by handwriting, spelling, or
neatness.
Putting the Test Together: Some Dos and Don’ts
1 Don’t crowd too much material on a page.
2 Do include complete instructions.
3 Don’t make the test too long.
4 Do write “power tests” not “speedy tests.”
5 Do group all items of the same type together.
6 Do announce the dates of major tests.
Test Assembly
 Make an effort to use a typesetting software.
 Avoid:
- Misspelled words and mis-numbered items or pages.
- An item split between two pages.
- Different page format.
- Not to include enough space for constructed response items.
Other Considerations
 Take the test yourself and record time. Students usually need to spend
three times the time you spent solving the test.
 Return the graded exam quickly.
 Discuss the exam after graded. This is a very valuable learning activity.
 Show students score distribution in the test.
The end
Dr Hanaa Al Baz
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