ADMINISTRATION OF TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS

Introduction
This unit describes the procedures involved in the administration of tests and examinations. It is followed
by a discussion of the criteria for the awarding of grades for achievement tests.
Specific Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
1. Identify the main steps in the administration of tests.
2. Explain how emergency cases should be treated in an exam room
3. Distinguish grading using the normal curve and a standard scale.
Practical Procedures involved in the Administration of Tests and Examinations
1. The teacher should inform students several days to the test about the purpose of the test, areas to
be covered by the test and the type of questions contained in the test.
2. He/she should prepare a register of attendance for each test and make sure that students sign it
upon receiving and handing in their answer scripts.
3. The teachers should write on the chalkboard the starting time and the finishing time of the test.
4. You should ensure that there is enough room between seats to avoid the chance of students
copying from one another.
5. The examination room should be well lighted and ventilated. It should be quite free from
disruptions.
Good Conditions of Examination Room
Uniform conditions refer to the need for all candidates to be accorded similar situations in the
examination room. All candidates must be treated equally with supplies, time, comforts and instructions.
Lighting is one of the most important needs in an examination room. It should be adequate to all in the
room. The supervising teacher must satisfy her/himself to this before the examination starts.
The teacher must also be satisfied that the seating arrangement is proper. Candidates should preferably
not sit at their own desks for others may have coded facts somewhere. The desks should be completely
empty. Candidates should not be able to read the scripts of their fellow candidates. This is minimized by
ensuring that a neighboring candidate sits directly in front, indirect to the left and directly to the right.
The entire desk arrangement should be in the form of a square matrix.
Equally important is the issue of positioning examination candidates away from external noise, and
distracting human traffic.

Before candidates arrive, the supervising teacher should supply writing paper by placing one on each
desk. This saves time, particularly some, where the examination is a laboratory practical requiring in
addition, the supply of several pieces of equipment.
Instructions to Candidates before the Start of the Examination
The most important instruction is of course, the examination time-table. It should be given earlier than a
week before the start of the first examination paper. This has the all-important benefit of assisting
candidates on their revision efforts. In the case of laboratory and workshop practical timetables also help
the laboratory and workshop teacher in-charge to keep equipment ready for each practical examination.
Examination candidates should also be informed as to what they can bring and not bring to examination
rooms. It is necessary to demand that each candidate brings his/her own set of basic requirements
including pencil sharpernr, eraser and ruler. Cheating at examinations is enhanced when candidates have
frequently to share someone else’s basic item. Sharing should, therefore not be allowed.
Procedure at the start of an examination
Examination candidates should be allowed to enter and be seated at their desks at least fifteen minutes
before the starting signal is due. This will enable them to have time to sort out their basic writing item,
and to write their names and numbers on the answer sheets, which should already be on the candidates’
desks. It also helps in the candidates’ psychological adjustment to an examination situation.
Before the starting signal is given, the supervising teacher should announce any necessary instructions.
These include, length of the examination, what a candidate should do if he/she requires additional writing
paper, whether time remaining shall be announced, whether a candidate can leave before the time ends,
whether and where there will be a stapler to bind the answer sheets and whether any papers shall be taken
out of the examination room.

A most important announcement concerns any correction, which should be made in the question papers
themselves. It is extremely disorientating to have such corrections announced during the course of the
examination. In any case, some candidates already may have attempted the particular item. It would
disturb them to have to repeat the item in the light of the correction. When satisfied that all is well, the
starting signal should be given it is immediately after this that the supervising teacher makes not of absent
candidates, if any. This exercise helps in resolving disputes that may arise later over lost scripts, for
instance.

Procedure during Examination

During the course of the examination several ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ should be observed. A supervising
teacher should not stop to read what a candidate is writing. A supervising teacher should not leave the
examination room. He/she should not allow more than one candidate at a time to leave the examination
room to go answer calls of nature.
A supervising teacher should be prepared to take additional writing paper to where candidates sit. The
supervising teacher should make rounds in the examination room, but in such a way that candidates are
not disturbed by noise. The teacher should announce time left at half-time, 30 minutes and 10 minutes to
the end. With about two minutes left, it is advisable to tell candidates to be sure all answer sheets bear
their names and numbers. When eventually the stop signal is given, candidates should stop writing. They
should be given a few minutes to arrange their papers in order, before the scripts are handed in.

Collecting examination scripts can present difficulties. A weak student can make sure he/she marked
present, but fail to hand in his script, thereby putting the teacher on the defensive and causing
embarrassment. A fool-proof method of avoiding this problem calls for the supervising teacher to
position him/herself at the exit, and collect scripts as candidates leave the examination room. Thereafter,
the bundle of scripts should be well secured and stored, pending marking.
How to Treat Emergency Cases
Emergencies can do arise, and supervising teachers are called upon to exercise calm decision making.
One issue concerns late arrivals. Lateness can be handled by the teacher on the basis of the explanation a
candidate gives. If it is trivial or far fetched, the teacher should reject it and have the candidate to do his
best to catch up with the others. If however, there had been a situation which had blocked traffic
movement, or evidence of one having had to go to see a doctor, surely the teacher should exercise
judgement and fair play and act accordingly. If he issues test materials, proper notes of the circumstances
should be kept. The candidate should then be left behind when the rest of the group files out at expiry of
their time.

A second example of emergency results from sickness or other emergency, which interrupts an on-going
test. If interruptions like this arise, the teacher should consider the likelihood of consultation among the
candidates during the period of interruptions.

Absence are not normal emergencies as described in the preceding paragraphs. It is the school policy that
should be the guiding factor. For, should another paper be prepared for the candidate who turns up a day
later? In the absence of a large item bank, is it feasible to set a test of the same depth as the test already
sat? Equally important should the teacher’s consideration over his students be limitless? And shouldn’t
candidates be expected to be proper managers of their affairs as part of normal training? It boils down to
letting the candidate face the consequences of his absence.
Securing Test Scripts
The embarrassment of the consequences of lost scripts presents a teacher with no mean experience. The
students face the danger of being awarded bogus marks, to say the least. If it is an external annual
examination, the candidate may have to waste a full year of his life. The fact that test scripts should be
locked safely away immediately. They should be closely bundled in envelopes during any movement by
the teacher or the marker. After marking, the same precaution should prevail.
Marking Test Scripts
In zonal, regional and national examinations, it is necessary to use teams of markers. In order to ensure
consistency of marking, the markers. In order to ensure consistency of marking, the markers are trained
on a common set of scripts and then mark scripts as a group so that unexpected responses can be
discussed and added to the marking scheme. Some scripts are re-marked by the team leader in order to
make a check on consistency.

A good test can be spoiled by poor marking. Indeed, marking counts towards test objectivity, and
therefore everything must be done to ensure adherence to the points explained below. To start with, a
marking scheme should be made. In fact, the marking scheme should be made as the test items are being
constructed. Most important, marking schemes re necessary even if there is only the subject teacher to do
the marking.

Test papers should be marked as soon as possible after the test has been administered. This ensures that
issues are still fresh in the teacher’s mind and once marking has started, the teacher should proceed
uninterrupted to the end of a whole set of test items. This suggestion is particularly required of essay
items where a teacher needs to maintain consistency in interpreting scorable points.

Before the actual marking starts, a sufficient conducive marking atmosphere needs to be established. The
marking atmosphere should be free of physical distractions such as noise and human traffic. Equally, the
teacher should be emotionally ready.

It is good practice to first read through a sample of scripts. This gives the teacher a general feel of the
task ahead. It has sometimes been found necessary to alter a marking scheme as a result of such
sampling.

Notes should be made of all common mistakes observed in test scripts. But on actual scripts, the errors
should not be corrected. Instead, specific but consistent symbols should be used to identify points of
errors. In fact such symbols are used only where a mark has been earned or failed to be earned. In
essays, a candidate’s words do not have to match words of the teacher’s marking scheme. Rather it is
parity of the ideas a teacher should seek to see if they match his own.

When marking a teacher’s personal image of the candidate should not be allowed to crowd the teacher’s
marking of the student’s scripts, nor should handwriting and flattery language influence.

Recording of scores into a respective ledger should come last in the exercise. If possible, this ledger
should be stored separately from the scripts. This is for reasons of possible loss of one lot or the other.

Awarding Grades
The awarding of letter grades A, B, C, D, E and F for achievement is a social-cultural practice of a long
time now, so are the implications of the respective grades, for example, A for success and E (or F) for
failure in a given endeavor.
In the past, intuition, experience and tradition have been the basis of awarding the particular letter grade.
Later, it became necessary to assign marks to assist in guiding towards the grade awards. Attaining a
certain number of marks would earn a particular grade, and so on. Later still, closer scrutiny became
necessary so as to apply more scientific analyses at least on educationally sound basis to judge which
candidate gets which grade.

Today, two alternative methods of grade awarding are in use.

1. Grading on the normal curve (a norm-referenced evaluation basis), and
2. Grading on fixed pass marks (a criterion- referenced evaluation basis).
A third practice is called grading on a standard. It is preferred for certain courses only.

We shall examine the three approaches in turns.

Grading on the Normal Curve (Norm-Referenced Judgement)

Grading on the curve involves dividing test scores into five groups of different sizes in such a way that
the corresponding letter grades A, B, C, D and E (or F) lead to a frequency distribution which
approximates the shape of the normal curve. In such a distribution, two smallest groups, A and E (or F),
occur at the extreme ends. The next two small groups B and D occur on either side of the largest group
C. But what will be the percentage of each group?

It will be recalled that stanines 1 to 9 represent, respectively, the percentages 4,7, 12, 17, 17, 12, 7 and 4
of the total distribution, thus.

Stanine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Equivalent % 4 7 12 17 20 17 12 7 4
By a method of interpolation, the percentage 6, 12 and 17 can be broken up, to lead to the suggested
percentage weightings for the letter grades, as follows:

Grade E D C B A
Equivalent % 0 - 10 24 40 24 6

Strict adherence to the curve has its demerits, however for even if a student performs quite well, he/she
may still fail the test if his/her peers do better. Secondly, the grade E (or F) suggests that the student
acquired no basic skills. Thirdly, not many class groups are normally distributed on aptitude, or in large
enough numbers to justify statistical data that can lead to a near normal distribution.

Putting these cautionary points before us, we are led by reason, intuition and experience to adopt a
modified system of distribution the letter grades. It is more positive in attitude, and it provides for
flexibility, depending on subject classification and also on the decisions of a school or region. It may be
expressed as shown in the following table.

Grade E D C B A
Equivalent % range 0 - 10 10 –20 30 - 50 20 - 50 10 - 20

As a practical exercise, let us adopt the percentages 5, 15, 45, 25 and 10 to be the respective weights of
the grades E (or F) and A. Let us also consider the following table of marks of 35 students from a biology
test. The task is to identify which marks score the grade A, B, C, D and E (or F) as the case may be.

Table 5.3: Biology marks for 35 students

66 66 72 85 66 74
64 68 64 77 63 83
74 55 73 65 49 59
63 56 65 41 53 57
86 68 47 53 45 65
71 75 57 31 61

The first step is to calculate how many of the 35 scores fit into each letter grade. After manipulations at
percentage approximations, we have the table.

Grade A B C D E Total
Equivalent % 10 25 45 15 5 100
No. of Scorers 3 9 16 5 2 35

The following problems are associated with the grading system based on the normal curve.
1. It assumes that we are dealing with large enough data to lead to a normal distribution.
2. It assumes that the students in the test group are normally distributed on the characteristic of
aptitude.
3. It condemns a percentage of candidates to sure failure. Conversely, it implies that the passing or
failing of candidates does not depend on the strength of the percentage of the teacher'’ performance but is
the reflection of their relative position as against their peers.
4. Finally, grading on the curve assumes competence o the machinery of item construction, prior
analysis of items in the item bank, syllabus coverage, and the objectivity of the marking itself.
Grading on Standard Scale

Grading on this criterion is otherwise called the system of grading on fixed pass marks. Essentially,
students are judged on the basis of mastery of the specific course contents. On this basis, the student’s
peers are not an issue. Indeed, a large number of students can legitimately score high grades and vice
versa.

The following table shows an example of the fixed mark level utilized in many institutions and regions.

Grade Range of Marks

A 85 – 100 Distinction
B 65 – 84 Credit
C 50 – 64 Satisfactory
D 40 – 49 Pass
E 0 - 39 Fail

The grades A,B,C,D, and E are the scales of the standard which has been designed, hence the description
“standard scale” grading.

As should be expected, this system calls for strict adherence to the statement of instructional objectives in
behavioral terms. In turn, standards of achievement should be specific.

Theoretically, no adjustments should be made to the grade distributions if the criteria of instructional
objectives, syllabus coverage, item difficulty and discrimination, test administration and marking
procedures were strictly followed.

Grading on a Standard (Criterion – referenced Mastery Judgement)

Another form of criterion – referenced grading is the one calling for a candidate to pass or, otherwise fail
the test. The candidate who passes is judged, ready and able to proceed to the next level of learning.
Many courses demand this mode of grading, such as practical on-the-road driving test, surgical technique
of removing the appendix, meeting Olympic qualifying height in the high-jump event, the technique of
defusing a time-bomb devise, and so on. The issue of “average” performance, for instance, does not arise
in these critical issues. The standard of performance must be mastered.

The teacher is put in a demanding situation when he/she has to grade on a standard. He/she is expected to
thoroughly know his subject matter from the point of view of the facts, the principles as well as thinner-
relationships between the course at hand and he course that follows it.

Secondly, the teacher should have a record of past performances of his/her previous student groups at that
level and the performance of these student groups at the next level of study or occupation. This calls for
follow-up inquiry to see whether the standard he/she himself set was indeed “up to standard.” Equally
important, the teacher should consult other professionals to assist him/her in confirming the standard
he/she is setting. An outside opinion is always healthy. But the outside opinion must best be assisted by
what records the teacher has at hand as his/her guide.

Grade Point Average

Some Universities and Colleges use a system called grade point average. In the grade average system,
raw scores are assigned letters grades and equated with numerical equivalents as shown below:

Letter Grade Numerical Equivalent

A 4
B 3
C 2
D 1
F 0

The systems use credit / semester hours and grade points.

Credit hour / semester hour refers to one hour of lecture / tutorial / practicals that is allocated to a
particular unit / per course per week per semester or term. A student who is registered for a course that is
allocated a three-hour lecture period per week will obtain three credit hours if he/she successfully
completes the course.

Grade point refers to the student’s score on a course multiplied by the number of credit hours assigned to
that particular course. For instance, statistics 1 is allocated 3 hours per week per semester, and a student
gets “D”, his/her grade point for the course will be 2 multiplied by 3 equals 6.

Grade point average (GPA) refers to the sum of the student’s grade points on various courses units
divided by the total number of the student’s semester – hours.

Example: A third year student obtained grades on four courses / units as follows:

Unit Letter
Grade Numeral
Equivalent Semester /
Credit hour Grade
Points
Teaching Practice A 4 6 24
Educational Assessment and Education C 2 3 6
Sociology of Education B 3 3 9
Comparative Education
C 2 3 6
Total 10 15 45
Computation

Formula for computing grade point average (GPA) is:

GPA = ∑GP
∑SH

where GP = Grade Points

SH = Semester Hours

GPA = 45 =3
15

Cumulative grade point average

This is the student’s overall grade point at the end of his / program. This is the grade that determines a
student’s classification as either First Class, Second Class Upper, Second Class Lower, or Pass.

The formula for computing the cumulative grade point average GPA is: -

GPA = ΣGP
ΣSH

Where GP = Grade Points

SH = Semester Hours

Example

Below is a record of a student’s performance in a two year program.

First Year Second Year

1st Semester 2nd Semester 1st Semester 2nd Semester

GP 52 48 40 60

SH 18 22 18 20

GPA = 52+48+40+60
18+22+18+20

= 2.5
Note: For assessment to be meaningful, it must be reliable. For this reason, teachers should ensure that
tests are properly invigilated and marked.

Activities
1. Compute the grade point average of a university student with the following scores. The semester
credit hour is 3 hours for all the units.
Unit letter Grade Numeric eq.
Ed. assessment and evaluation A 4
History of education B 3
Philosophy of education A 4
Research methods A 4
Written Exercises
1. Identify the main steps in the administration of tests
2. Explain how emergency cases should be treated in an examination
Describe the procedure of marking scripts.
UNIT FIVE

ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Introduction
This unit deals with the assessment of attitudes and values. It discusses the challenges and methods of
assessing attitudes and values.
Components of an Attitude
An attitude has three components: (i) the affective component, (ii) the cognitive components, and (iii)
the active component
The affective component of an attitude is revealed by the extent to which the student likes or dislikes the
attitude target. The cognitive component of the attitude is connected with students’ knowledge and
assumptions. It is his belief regarding the nature of the attitude target and relationship to other objectives.
The active component of the attitude means the likelihood of a person demonstrating positive and
negative feelings to a target by means of actual concrete actions. It also means willingness to act for or
against an attitude target.

For example when assessing students’ attitudes towards mathematics, you should find out whether they
like or dislike mathematics. This is the affective component. You should also find out their knowledge
(belief regarding the nature of mathematics) and assumptions and presumptions about mathematics and its
relationship to other school subjects.
Finally, you should evaluate students’ preparedness to be involved in the processes of inquiry and
involvement in investigations. However, it should be noted that the components can only be separated
from each other theoretically.

Problems of Assessing Attitudes and Values

• Attitudes and values are not easy to measure. You can set out to teach students the importance of
conserving vegetation and at the end of the lesson you can easily find out whether the students have
understood the topic. On the other hand, you may try to change students’ attitudes towards the
environment by explaining to them that they should conserve vegetation. But at the end of the lesson, it is
very difficult to find out whether students’ attitudes have really changed.
• Another problem is that of finding a sufficiently reliable criterion. Teachers find it difficult to
identify the things they should accept as evidence of the acquisition of desirable attitudes and values.
• The other problem is the teachers’ inability to construct valid and reliable assessment
instruments.
Methods of Assessing Attitudes and Values
Research has shown that it is not correct to infer a person’s attitude towards something from his
knowledge of the object. For example, a student can give correct answers to all questions on conservation
of natural resources, but that does not mean that the student has a positive attitude towards natural
resources.

Before you start teaching attitudes, values and designing assessment techniques, you should identify the
attitudes and values you want your students to learn, e.g. co-operation, honesty and responsibility. After
you have identified the attitudes and values, you should carefully analyze the concept and clearly specify
indicators of the presence of the attitude or value. This will make it possible for you to measure it. For
example, if you want to find out whether a student is developing the attitude of cooperation, the following
are some of the indicators you should look for:
• Willingness to share materials
• Liking for group work and
• Willingness to help other students solve problems.

Attitudes and values can be measured through the use of the following techniques.
a. attitude and value scales
b. rating scales
c. checklists
d. paper and pencil questionnaire
e. oral interviews
f. observation
g. group discussion
Attitude and Value Scales
An attitude and value scale consists of a set of statements or questions such as “I think every student
should learn AIDS education”. The student, parent, teacher is asked to respond to such a question or
statement in terms of personal preferences or beliefs. Unlike tests, attitudes don not have correct or
wrong answers. Attitude scales assume that subjective attitudes of people can be measured in quantitative
techniques. The responses of individuals are assigned numerical scores. Two most commonly used types
of attitude scales are described below:
Likert Scale:
This type of scale is normally used to assess students’ attitudes. Under this method, statements which
reflect both positive and negative attitudes towards an object are stated. Students are then asked to
indicated their level of agreement with each statement by marking one of the following categories.
Strongly agree : 5
Agree : 4
Undecided : 3
Disagree : 2
Strongly disagree: 1
For example, a Likert Scale to assess students’ attitudes towards people with HIV would like this:
Directions: Indicate whether you strongly agree (SA), agree (A), are undecided (U), Disagree (D), or
Strongly Disagree (SD).
SA A U D SD
1. People with AIDS have themselves to blame.
2. Children with the HIV virus should not be allowed in schools
3. I would not allow my children to play with HIV positive children
4. A spouse has a right to leave the infected partner

Weight of 1,2,3,4, and 5 are assigned. The direction of weighting is determined by the favorableness or
un-favourableness of the item. The attitude scale is scored by assigning weights for response alternatives
as follows: strongly disagree 1, agree 2, undecided 3, disagree 4, strongly disagree 5. For positive items,
the order is reversed.

Semantic Differential
The semantic differential is another method of assessing attitudes toward a target object. The semantic
differential scale measures how an individual judges a particular concept on a set of semantic scales. The
approach uses a six point scale anchored by adjective opposites. For example, after you have taught
about polygamy and wish to determine the attitude students have developed towards polygamy, you may
want to use the following scale;
Polygamy is:
Desirable
6 5 4 3 2 1 Undesirable
Fashionable 6 5 4 3 2 1 Outdated
Acceptable
6 5 4 3 2 1 Unacceptable

Guidelines on Developing Attitude Items

1. Use short simple statements
2. Avoid using factual statements.
3. Avoid using double negatives
4. Try to have as many negatively oriented statements as positively oriented ones.
5. Have at least 10 statements in the set
6. Avoid statements that are irrelevant to the object under consideration.
7. Avoid statements that are likely to be endorsed by almost no one.
8. Keep the language of the statements simple, clear and direct.

Rating Scales
Rating scales are used to provide the means of obtaining quantified databases on observed behavior or
characteristics of individuals. They consist of a set of descriptive words or statements. They are useful
for behaviors that cannot be quantified by counting procedures. For example mastery of the content being
taught. The evaluator observes the lesson and later quantifies these attributes using for example a scale of
1-5 where 5 is the highest and vice versa.

Questionnaires
Questionnaires are also used for determining interest and attitudes of people. Direct questions are asked
and the responses are normally presented in a yes – no format.
Note: Attitudes are very important and teachers should make attempts to develop the right attitudes in
their students.
Activities
1. Construct an attitude scale to assess changes in a selected value or attitude.
2. Construct an instrument showing value towards abortion

Written Exercises
1. What are the main problems of assessing attitudes?
2. Distinguish between a Likert scale and a Semantic Differential
3. Explain the three components of an attitude.