Appendix 4
Use of the Hong Kong Attainment Tests for diagnostic purposes
(taken from the Hong Kong Attainment Test Junior Secondary Series II
English Teacher’s Handbook with slight adaptations)
I.
Testing Areas
Questions are set on the following language aspects: -
II.
1.
Functions - pupils’ ability to give correct responses in dialogue.
2.
Forms - pupils’ ability to appreciate the basic forms and structures of the
English language including the verbs, vocabulary, prepositions and
sentence structures.
3.
Reading Comprehension - pupils’ ability to give correct responses or
carry out tasks according to information given.
4.
Writing - pupils’ ability to write in simple, correct English according to
cues given.
5.
Integrated Activity - pupils’ ability to complete integrated reading and
writing tasks. This is for JS 2 and JS 3 only.
6.
Listening Comprehension - pupils’ ability to respond to oral English by
selecting the right answer from options given or completing some tasks
as required.
Distribution of Items among Various Testing Areas
The distribution of test items on these different language aspects, the score of
each section and the total score of each test are shown as follows: -
Testing Area
Section
A
1.
Functions
2.
Forms
B
3.
Reading
Comprehension
C
4.
Writing
D
5.
Integrated Activity
(reading and
writing tasks)
-
6.
Listening
Comprehension
Total
E
Secondary 1 Test B
(JS 1B)
No. of Items
15
Score
15
Section
A
Secondary 2
(JS 2)
No. of Items
10
15
15
B
10
10
B
10
10
15
25
C
9
18
C
9
18
25
D
a composition of
about 80 words
18
D
a composition of
about 100-120
words
18
-
E
3 items and a
letter of about
50 words
30
E
3 items and a
paragraph of
about 50 words
30
20
F
14
14
F
46 + 2 pieces of
writing
100
a letter of about
40 words and a
composition of
about 50 words
-
10
55 + 2 pieces of
writing
100
Score
10
Section
A
Secondary 3
(JS 3)
No. of Items
10
Score
10
14
46 + 2 pieces of
writing
14
100
The new JS 1A Test (Series II) will be ready for use in the 1997 - 98 school
year. The corresponding Teacher’s Handbook containing the Norm Table for
the new JS 1A Test (Series II) will not be available until around April 1998.
III.
Interpretation of Test Results
After marking the tests, teachers can compare their pupils’ scores with those of
the standardisation sample of the same level by referring to the Statistical
Information in the Norm Tables.
1.
Comparison by Mean Score
For instance, a pupil’s raw score can be compared against the mean
scores listed by level below: -
2.
Test
JS 1B
JS 2
JS 3
Mean
46.14
38.67
40.06
Comparison by Percentile
From Norm Table 1, teachers can find out the relative standing of each
pupil among the pupils in the standardisation sample of the same level.
For example, according to Table 1, the percentile of an S.1 pupil who got
a raw score of 56 in JS 1B test is 62.1. This means that 62.1% of the
pupils in the standardisation sample achieved that particular level of
score or a level lower than that. In other words, about 37.9% of the
pupils scored higher marks than this S.1 pupil in the same test.
3.
Comparison by Standardised Score
A comparison of the performance of a pupil in different tests can be
made on the basis of the standardised score. The mean of the
standardised score found in the norm tables is 100. Should a pupil get a
standardised score of above 100, he has an above average standard. If
he should have a standardised score of below 100, his standard is below
the average. For example, if an S.1 pupil had standardised scores of
96.29, 100.53 and 110.37 in the Mathematics test, the English test and
the Chinese test respectively, then his level of achievement would be
slightly below average in Mathematics, average in English, and above
average in Chinese.
4.
Reading Test Results for Diagnostic Purposes
To diagnose pupils’ weak areas in the language so as to plan for remedial
teaching, teachers can look for the appropriate percentile in Table 2.
For example, an S.1 pupil had the following results in JS 1B test: Testing Area
Functions
Forms
Reading
Comprehension
Writing
Listening
Comprehension
Raw Score
3
4
13
11
9
Percentile
20.5
34.8
51.6
58.5
55.0
They reveal that in Reading Comprehension, Writing and Listening
Comprehension, the pupil had a standard comparable to that of the
average pupils in the standardisation sample but he was relatively weak
in Functions and Forms.
5.
Glossary
(a)
Raw Score
The score given by a teacher after marking according to the answer
key and the marking scheme is called the raw score.
(b)
Standardised Score
It is inappropriate to draw direct comparison of a pupil’s
performance in different tests in terms of the raw scores because
they have not been standardised. Before valid comparison can be
made, it is necessary to convert the raw scores to scores on a
common scale.
Standardised score is a kind of such
common-scale score.
In this handbook, the mean and the standard deviation of the
standardised scores are 100 and 15 respectively. For example, in
Table 1, a raw score of 33 is equivalent to a standardised score of
91.95.
(c)
Percentile
The percentile provides information of the relative standing of a
score in a distribution. The percentile of a test score is the
percentage of scores in the distribution that falls at or below that
score. Percentile ranges from 1 to 100. For example, in Table 1,
the percentile of a raw score of 29 is 30. This indicates that in the
standardisation sample, 30% of the pupils have a raw score of 29
marks or less.
Table 1
Hong Kong Attainment Test
(Junior Secondary Series II)
JS 1B English
Norm Table
Raw
Score
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Standardised
Score
71.74
72.35
72.97
73.58
74.19
74.80
75.42
76.03
76.64
77.25
77.87
78.48
79.09
79.70
80.32
80.93
81.54
82.15
82.77
83.38
83.99
84.60
85.22
85.83
86.44
87.05
87.67
88.28
88.89
89.50
90.12
90.73
91.34
91.95
92.57
93.18
93.79
94.40
95.02
95.63
96.24
96.85
97.47
98.08
98.69
99.30
99.91
100.53
101.14
101.75
102.36
Percentile
0.2
0.4
0.8
1.4
2.1
2.8
3.7
5.0
6.1
7.0
8.3
9.6
10.8
12.0
12.9
14.0
15.1
16.0
17.4
18.6
20.2
21.1
22.0
23.4
24.3
25.6
26.6
27.8
28.8
30.0
31.3
32.1
33.1
34.4
35.4
36.2
37.8
39.3
40.0
41.4
42.6
43.5
44.5
46.0
47.2
48.5
49.6
51.0
52.1
53.2
54.5
Raw
Score
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
Standardised
Score
102.98
103.59
104.20
104.81
105.43
106.04
106.65
107.26
107.88
108.49
109.10
109.71
110.33
110.94
111.55
112.16
112.78
113.39
114.00
114.61
115.23
115.84
116.45
117.06
117.68
118.29
118.90
119.51
120.13
120.74
121.35
121.96
122.58
123.19
123.80
124.41
125.03
125.64
126.25
126.86
127.47
128.09
128.70
129.31
129.92
130.54
131.15
131.76
132.37
132.99
Percentile
55.9
56.8
58.2
59.8
60.9
62.1
63.3
64.1
65.7
66.7
67.9
69.0
70.4
71.7
73.0
74.1
75.6
77.3
78.6
80.2
81.5
82.6
83.9
84.9
86.2
87.2
88.4
89.3
90.5
91.6
93.0
93.9
94.9
95.5
96.2
96.7
97.6
98.3
98.8
99.0
99.1
99.4
99.5
99.7
99.8
99.9
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Table 2
Hong Kong Attainment Test
(Junior Secondary Series II)
JS 1B English
Norm Table (By Testing Area)
Raw
Score
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Standardised
Score
Functions
73.30
76.45
79.60
82.75
85.90
89.05
92.20
95.35
98.49
101.64
104.79
107.94
111.09
114.24
117.39
120.54
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Forms
72.38
76.67
80.96
85.25
89.54
93.83
98.11
102.40
106.69
110.98
115.27
119.55
123.84
128.13
132.42
136.71
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Reading Comprehension
74.80
76.73
78.67
80.60
82.54
84.48
86.41
88.35
90.29
92.22
94.16
96.09
98.03
99.97
101.90
103.84
105.78
107.71
109.65
111.58
Percentile
2.1
7.2
13.7
20.5
27.2
33.5
39.2
44.6
49.5
54.2
59.5
65.4
71.6
77.9
86.2
100.0
2.3
7.3
15.1
24.1
34.8
43.0
51.4
59.7
68.9
77.6
85.3
92.0
96.1
98.6
99.7
100.0
5.2
8.2
12.5
15.1
18.5
22.1
25.3
28.8
32.4
36.6
39.9
44.8
47.3
51.6
53.6
58.6
60.6
65.8
67.4
74.2
Raw
Score
20
21
22
23
24
25
Standardised
Score
113.52
115.46
117.39
119.33
121.27
123.20
Percentile
75.4
83.2
84.0
93.5
93.7
100.0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Writing
77.46
79.87
82.27
84.68
87.09
89.50
91.91
94.32
96.73
99.14
101.55
103.96
106.37
108.78
111.19
113.60
116.01
118.42
120.83
123.24
125.65
128.06
130.47
132.88
135.29
137.70
12.8
15.8
19.6
23.7
27.8
31.5
35.0
39.1
43.7
48.4
53.5
58.5
64.8
71.7
76.6
82.0
86.2
90.1
92.8
95.4
97.3
98.9
99.6
99.8
99.9
100.0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Listening Comprehension
76.73
79.38
82.03
84.68
87.33
89.99
92.64
95.29
97.94
100.59
103.25
105.90
108.55
111.20
113.85
116.51
119.16
121.81
124.46
127.11
129.77
9.3
9.4
18.6
18.9
29.1
29.3
40.9
42.0
53.5
55.0
63.7
65.6
73.5
75.3
81.3
83.9
89.0
91.8
95.1
97.3
100.0