PED 111- ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING 1

CHAPTER 3.

GUIDELINES FOR CONSTRUCTING TEST ITEMS

CLASSIFICATION:

STANDARDIZED

TEACHER-MADE – CONSTRUCTED BY CLASSROOM TEACHERS BASED ON OBJECTIVES & COMPETENCIES

COVERED.

 MULTIPLE CHOICES
1. Make the content meaningful. Do not test trivial or unimportant facts.
2. Make all alternatives plausible as correct responses. To make sure your alternatives are
plausible, define the class of things to which all of the answer choices should belong.
3. Reduce the length of the alternatives by moving as many words as possible to the stem.
The rationale is the additional words in the alternatives have to be read four or five
times, in the stem only once.
4. Do not make the correct answer stand out as a result of its phrasing or length.
5. Avoid the exact wording of a source material. This places too much emphasis on simple
memory and barely tests cognitive acquisition at the knowledge level.
6. The length, explicitness or degree of technicality of alternatives should not vary with
correctness.

 ALTERNATIVES RESPONSE TEST

EXAMPLE: TRUE OR FALSE, CORRECT OR INCORRECT AND FACT OR OPINION
1. Be certain that the statement is entirely true or entirely false.
2. Convey only one thought or idea in a true/false statement.
3. Require learners to write a short explanation of why false answers are incorrect.
4. Beware of detectable answer patterns.
5. Beware of words denoting indefinite degree and easily lead to ambiguity.

 MATCHING TYPE
EXAMPLE: PREMISE AND RESPONSE
1. Limit the number of items to maximum of six or seven. It becomes very
confusing for learners to try to match a greater amount.
2. Provide directions. Students should not have to ask, for example, whether
options may be used more than once.
3. Limit the length of the items to a word, phrase or brief sentence.
4. Keep the question to one page and on the same page.

 SHORT-ANSWER, FILL IN THE BLANK AND COMPLETION ITEMS

1. Prepare a scoring key that contains all acceptable answers for each item.
2. Beware of open questions that invite unexpected but reasonable answers.

 Essay Items
1. Inform students of the grading criteria and conditions.
2. Do not give students a choice of essays: have all respond to the same questions.
3. Allow sufficient time to answer to give the students to outline first
Guidelines:

Institute fairness

-keeping your wording clear and making sure your questions are direct and not ambiguous is very
important.

Stick to the topic at hand

-when creating your items, ensuring that each item aligns with the objective being tested is very
important.

Ensure item relevancy

-your items should be relevant to task that you are trying to test.

-coming up with ideas to write on can be difficult, but avoid asking your test takers to identify trivial
facts about your objectives just to something to right.

Gauge item difficulty

-remembering your audience when writing your test items can make or break your exam.

Inspect you options

-always make sure your correct option is 100% correct, and your incorrect options are 100% incorrect.

-make sure your distractors are plausible