Lecturer: Yee Bee Choo

IPGKTHO
Determining

Planning

Writing

Preparing

Reviewing

Pre-testing

Validating
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1. Determining
Be clear with the following:
 The objective of the test (what will it measure?)
 The need for the test (what advantages will it have?)
 The test population (who will take it?)
 The content (what will the test cover?)
 The style of administration (how will it be given)
 The item format (will it be forced choice? Multiple
choice?)
 The inclusion of alternate forms use (is it necessary
for this test?)
 The training requirements (what professionals are
allowed to give the test?)

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2. Planning
 Prepare a table of specifications for the test.

 This will include information on:

◦ content
◦ format and timing
◦ criteria
◦ levels of performance
◦ scoring procedures

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3. Writing
A good test item writer should:
 be experienced in test construction.
 know the subject matter well.
 know and understand the students being
tested.
 be thoroughly familiar with test formats
 have the capacity in using language clearly
and economically.
 be ready to sacrifice time and energy.

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4. Preparing
Factors in selecting the appropriate format:
 Purpose of the test

 Time available to prepare and score the test

 The number of students to be tested

 Physical facilities available for reproducing

the test
 Skill in writing the different types of items

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5. Reviewing
Principles for reviewing test items:
 The test should not be reviewed immediately
after its construction, but after some
considerable time.
 Other teachers or testers should review it.

 In a language test, it is preferable if native

speakers are available to review the test.

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6. Pre-testing
 The tester should administer the newly-
developed test to a group of examinees
similar to the target group and the purpose is
to analyse every individual item as well as
the whole test.
 Numerical data (test results) should be
collected to check the efficiency of the item,
it should include item facility and
discrimination.

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7. Validating
 Item difficulty (or easiness)/Item Facility (IF) –
the extent to which an item is easy or difficult
for the proposed group of test-takers
 Item discrimination (ID) –

the extent to which an item differentiates

between high- and low-ability test-takers

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7. Validating
 To measure the facility or easiness of the item, the
following formula is used:

(Σc) - number of correct responses

(N) - total number of candidates
 The results of such equations range from 0 – 1.
 An item with a facility index of 0 is too difficult,
and with 1
is too easy.
 The ideal item is one with the value of (0.5) and the
acceptability range for item facility is between [0.37 →
0.63], i.e. less than 0.37 is difficult, and above 0.63 is
easy.
 Thus, tests which are too easy or too difficult for a given
sample population, often show low reliability.

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 Test specs serve as a blueprint of the test in
the following:
 a description of its content

 item types (methods, such as multiple-

choice, cloze, etc.)
 tasks (e.g. written essay, reading a short
passage, etc.)
 skills to be included

 how the test will be scored

 how it will be reported to students

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 According Brown (2005), test specification
should include the following:
1. Outline of the test

2. Skills to be included

3. Item types and tasks

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1. Outline of the test (example)
Section A. Vocabulary
Part 1 (5 items): match words and definitions
Part 2 (5 items): use the words in a sentence
Section B. Grammar
(10 sentences): error detection (underline or
circle the error)
Section C. Reading comprehension
(2 one-paragraph passages): four short-answer items for
each
Section D. Writing
Respond to a two-paragraph article on Malaysian culture

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2. Skills to be included
 Sometimes due to time constraint, a 60-minute test
can only assess 3 or 4 language skills, e.g. listening,
reading, writing and grammar.
 Other skill such as speaking is done separately in
another time as more time is needed if the teacher is
assessing the students one-by-one.

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3. Item Types and Tasks
 There are a limited number of modes of
eliciting responses (i.e. prompting) and of
responding on tests of any kind.
 Consider: the test prompt can be oral
(student listens) or written (student reads)
and the student can respond orally or in
writing.

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3. Item Types and Tasks (Elicitation mode)

Oral (student listens) Written (student reads)

•word, pair of words •word, set of words

•sentence(s), question •sentence(s), question
•directions •directions
•monologue, speech •paragraph
•Pre-recorded •essay, excerpt
conversation; •short story, book
•interactive
(live) dialogue
3. Item Types and Tasks (Response mode)
Oral Written
•repeat •mark multiple-choice
•read aloud option
•yes / no •fill in the blank
•short response •spell a word
•describe •define a term (with a
•role play phrase)
•monologue (speech) •short answer (2-3
•interactive dialogue sentences)
•essay
3. Item Types and Tasks (example)
Speaking (5 minute per person, previous day)
Format: oral interview
Task: teacher asks questions of students
Listening (10 minutes)
Format: teacher makes audiotape in advance, with one other
voice on it
Task: a. 5 minimal pair items, MCQ
b. 5 interpretation items, MCQ
Reading (10 minutes)
Format: cloze test items (10 total) in a story line
Task: fill-in the blanks
Writing (10 minutes)
Format: prompt for a topic: why I like/ do not like football
Task: writing a short opinion paragraph
 Blooms’ Taxonomy (1956) is a systematic way
of describing how a learner’s performance
develops from simple to complex levels in
their affective, psychomotor and cognitive
domain of learning.
 The original taxonomy provided carefully
developed definitions for each of the six
major categories in the cognitive domain and
it was revised in 2001.

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Anderson and Krathwohl

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 SOLO (Biggs & Collis, 1982), which stands for the
Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome,
taxonomy is a systematic way of describing how
a learner’s performance develops from simple to
complex levels in their learning.
 There are 5 stages, namely Prestructural,
Unistructural, Multistructural, which are in a
quantitative phrase and Relational and Extended
Abstract, which are in a qualitative phrase.
 Students find learning more complex as it
advances.

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 SOLO is a means of classifying learning outcomes
in terms of their complexity, enabling teachers
to assess students’ work in terms of its quality
not of how many bits of this and of that they got
right.
 At first we pick up only one or few aspects of the
task (unistructural), then several aspects but they
are unrelated (multistructural), then we learn
how to integrate them into a whole (relational),
and finally, we are able to generalise that whole
to as yet untaught applications (extended
abstract).

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 The SOLO taxonomy maps the complexity of a
student’s work by linking it to one of five phases:
little or no understanding (Prestructural), through a
simple and then more developed grasp of the
topic (Unistructural and Multistructural), to the
ability to link the ideas and elements of a task
together
(Relational) and finally (Extended Abstract) to
understand the topic for themselves, possibly going
beyond the initial scope of the task (Biggs & Collis,
1982; Hattie & Brown, 2004).
 In their later research into multimodal learning,
Biggs & Collis noted that there was an ‘increase in
the
structural complexity of their (the students’)
responses’ (1991:64).

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 Aim of the test: measure the objectives
prescribed by the blueprint and meet quality
standards.
 Range of topics to be tested: measure the
test-takers’ ability or proficiency in applying
the knowledge and principles on the topics
that they have learnt.
 Range of skills to be tested: measure higher
levels of cognitive processing.

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 Test format: follow a consistent design so that
the questioning process in itself does not
give unnecessary difficulty to answering
questions.
 Level of difficulty: plan number of questions at a
level of difficulty and discrimination to best
determine mastery and non-mastery
performance states.
 Internal and cultural considerations (biasness):
refrain from the use of slang, geographic
references, historical references or dates
(holidays) that may not be understood by an
international examinee.

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SPM 1119 English
Paper 1 (Time: 1 hour 45 minutes)
 Section A. Directed Writing (35 marks)
 Section B. Continuous Writing (50 marks)

Paper 2 (Time: 2 hours 15 minutes)

 Section A. 15 MCQ questions (15 marks)
 Section B. Information Transfer (10 marks)
 Section C. (i) Reading Comprehension (10 marks)
(ii) Summary (15 marks)
 Section D. Literature Component.
(i) Poem. 1 poem with 4 short-answer questions
(5 marks)
(ii) Novel. 1 essay question (15 marks)

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PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah) PT3 (Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3)
Written Test Oral & Written
1. Bahasa Melayu Test Bahasa
2. English Melayu English
3. Mathematics Written Test
4. Science Mathematics
5. Geography Science

6. History Living Skills

7. Living Skills Islamic Education
8. Islamic Education
Native Language
9. Native Language
Project (Case Study
Instrument) Geography
History

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