Writing test items

Writing test items

Testing is a very important aspect of teaching. According to ''Wilga Rivers'',

"It is a natural step in the educational process so stop. They have a twofold purpose, acting as a guide to the student and a guide to the teacher".

 All tests can be grouped under three categories:

•  Aptitude test

• Proficiency tests

• Achievement tests

The most commonly used classroom tests are achievement tests. ''B.W Robinett'' has called them "scoring tests". They measure how far students have achieved the goals of the instruction; they also evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction. Achievement tests are of two types:

• Subjective tests
• Objective tests

They are different from each other in their design and technique

1. Subjective test:


Subjective tests are also called "easy type tests''. Subjective means something personal based on personal feelings and opinions. As such, in these tests, the assessment depends upon the examiner's opinion, judgment, or evolution. They contain items like the description of a person or thing, the narration of an incident, views on some topic. They may be marked differently by different examiners. Moreover, in these tests, questions may have different answers depending on the personal opinion, thoughts, feelings, and knowledge of the students.


Advantages of the subjective test

These tests have some strong points:

• First, these tests are good to test the ability of the student to organize ideas.
• Secondly, in a single subjective test, we can test many squares of the language.
• Thirdly the teacher can judge the range of students' knowledge and the working of his mind.
• Lastly, there is no element of chance that the student cannot guess the answer.

Disadvantages of subjective tests

There are some limitations of this type of test;

• First, these are not comprehensive. They cannot be separated over the entire course.
• Secondly, they are not dependable because in their marking there is an element of subjectivity. So their scoring is unstable. If the same test is given to different examiners for evaluation, the result will be different. Even the same examiner is likely to award different marks to the same script if he is the true market on two different occasions.
• Lastly, very often easy type questions are constructed carelessly. Sometimes they required too long answers and sometimes too short.

Kinds of subjective tests

Some of the subject tests are as follows

• The short answer of 2-3 lines to questions.
• Detailed answers of one or two pages of two questions.
• Dialogue writing, story writing.
• Essay writing /paragraph writing.

2. Objective tests

Objective means something which is based on facts, not on personal opinion. Objective tests are so-called because there is objectivity in their marking. Its evaluation does not depend on the personal opinion of the examiner. Moreover in this type of test, to achieve objectivity each question is set in such a way as to have one correct answer. As such the personal opinion of the examiner does not affect the marking.


Kinds of objective tests

These tests include items like

• True-false exercises
• Matching
• Transformation
• Completion
• Combination
• Rearrangement
• Cloze tests
• Multiple choice.

Advantages of objective tests

These tests have some strong points.

• First, they can be separated over the entire course and every item of the syllabus can be tested.
• Secondly, they are useful for measuring specific skills and items of knowledge separately.
• Thirdly, they are easy to score. There is no element of value judgment or personal opinion.
• Lastly, they are reliable because this course is the same whoever may be the examiner.

Disadvantages of objective tests

There are some limitations of this type of test:

• First, these are very difficult to construct. They need much care and attention. The paper setter to see that only one and one answer is correct.
• Secondly, they have some scope for chance or luck. An answer can be correct by chance.
• Lastly, these tests do not test the students' self-expression. They test only recognition and comprehension.

Conclusion

In short, objective and subjective tests are used to designate two types of scoring. Objective tests are those that are scored rather mechanically without the need to evaluate complex performance on a scale. Subjective tests are those that require an opinion, judgment on the part of the examiner. In general subjective tests permit the use of a technique that is natural and seems outwardly very valid. Objective tests have been criticized at times because to reduce the items to mechanical scoring they are rendered outwardly artificial.