TEST CONSTRUCTION

LUDIVINA A. PORCARE
Assistant School Principal II
Introduction

A test refers to a tool, technique or method that is

intended to measure students’ skills and
knowledge. In this sense, testing can be
considered as a form of assessment. Tests should
meet some basic requirements, such as validity
and reliability.
 Characteristics of a Good Test

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 Principles of Test Construction

1. Measure all instructional objectives

• Objectives that are communicated and imparted to the
students.
• Designed as an operational control to guide the learning
processes.
• Aligned to the teachers instructional objectives.

2. Cover all learning tasks

• Measure the representative part of the learning task.
 Principles of Test Construction
3. Appropriate testing strategies or items.
• Items which appraise the specific learning outcome.
• Measurements or tests based on the domains of learning
4. Make test valid and reliable.
• Reliable when it produce dependent, consistent, and accurate scores.
• Valid when it measures what its purports to measure.
• Test which are written clearly and unambiguous are reliable.
• Tests with fairly more items are reliable than tests with less items.
• Tests which are well planned, covers wide objectives and are well
executed are more valid.
 Principles of Test Construction

5.Use test to improve learning.

• Tests are not only an assessment but also it is a
learning experience.
• Going over the test items may help teachers to
reattach missed items.
• Discussion and clarification over the right choice gives
further learning.
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1. Planning the Test

• Planning is the first important step in the test construction. The

main goal of evaluation process is to collect valid, reliable and
useful data about the student. Thus, before developing any test,
we must be mindful of the following;

• What is to be measured?
• What content areas should be included and
• What types of test items are to be included.
Planning the test, includes the following major considerations:

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1.1 Determining the Objectives of Testing

• A test can be used for different purposes in a teaching

learning process. It can be used to measure the entry
performance, the progress during teaching and learning
process and to decide the mastery level achieved by the
students.
1.2. Preparing Test Specifications

To ensure that the test will measure a representative sample of the instructional
objectives and content areas, we must prepare test specifications.

The commonly used device for this purpose is the “Table of Specification” or
TOS, also known as the “Blue Print” which act as the guide in test construction.
Preparing test specification, includes four major steps:

• Determining the weightage to different instructional

objectives
• Determining the weightage to different content areas.
• Determining the item types to be included.
• Preparation of the table of specification
• Determining the weightage to different instructional objectives

OBJECTIVES WEIGHTAGE IN % NO. OF QUESTIONS

Problem Solving 35% 17 or 18
Information Literacy 30% 15
Critical Thinking 35% 18 or 17
Total 100% 50
• Determining the weightage to different content areas.

In a 50 item test to determine the weightage to different learning competencies follows a formula;

Weightage of a topic = No. of pages of the topic________ X total number of items

Total number of pages in the book

For example:
If a book contains 200 pages and a 50 item test will be constructed, the weightage will be as
follows:

Topic 1 consist of 10 pages in the book thus,

Weightage of Topic 1 = 10/200 X 50

= 2.5
Therefore 2 or 3 items will be allotted to topic 1.
• Determining the item types to be included.

Multiple Choice type of test is said to be the most popular type of

assessment in education. Numerous studies shows that multiple choice
type of test improve long-term retention and produce deeper
understanding.
• Preparation of the table of specification
2. Preparing the Test

After planning, preparation is the next important step in

test construction. In this step, the test items are
constructed in line with the table of specification. Each
item in the test need special care for construction.
In preparing test items, extra care must be taken into consideration. Thus the following
principles will help in preparing relevant test items.

1. Test items must be appropriate for the learning outcome to be measured.

2. Test items should measure all types of instructional objectives and the whole
content area.
3. Test items should be free from ambiguity.

Example:

• Where did Lucy born? ( Poor Item)

• In which city did Lucy born? ( Better item)

4. Test Items should be of appropriate difficulty level.

5. Test items must be free from technical errors and irrelevant clues.
6. Test items should be free from racial, ethnic, and sexual biases.
Sample
Question 1.

Larry is a Grade 9 student from Commonwealth High School. His test

scores out of a possible 50 in Science were as follows:

45 36 17 26 40 36 31 37 42 29

1.a1. Determine the range of test scores of Larry in Science.

1.a2. Determine the average test score of Larry in Science.

1.a3. There will be an additional test in Science after a week. What should be
the minimum score Larry needs in order to increase his average score by 1?
3. Try out the test.

Once the test was planned and prepared, its time to confirm its validity,
reliability and usability of the test. Trying it out will help to identify defective
and ambiguous items, to determine the difficulty level of the test and
determine the discriminating power of the items.

Try out involves two important functions:

1. Administration of the test, and

2. Scoring of the test.
4. Evaluating the Test

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Validity of the Test
In the process of evaluation, it can be estimated to what extent the test
measures what the test maker intends to measure.

Reliability of the Test

Evaluation process also estimates to what extent a test is consistent
from one measurement to other. Otherwise the results of the test is not
dependable.

Usability of the Test

Step 3 (Try out) and Step 4 (Evaluation process) indicates to what
extent a test is usable in general classroom condition. It also implies how far a
test is usable from administration, scoring, time and economy point of view.
Primer NATG12 SY22-23