CONSTRUCTION OF TEST

ITEMS

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• There are three broad types of test items:
a) Objective items
b) Essay items
c) Performance items

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 Objective Test Items
• They are called "objective" because they have
specific, predetermined answers. Different
people could mark the items in exactly the same
way (This is not true of essays)

• Test items consisting of factual questions

requiring extremely short answers that can be
quickly and unambiguously scored by anyone
with an answer key, thus minimizing subjective
judgments by both the person taking the test
and the person scoring it
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Types of Objective Test Items
These are mainly:
a) True / False
b) Multiple choice
c) Matching
d) Completion

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 True / False Items
A statement is provided and the student is
required to state whether it is true or false.
Example:

Babies crawl before they stand. True / False

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Rules for writing effective T/F items
1. The item should test an important idea
2. The item should not reward recall of
stereotyped phrase e.g “The higher you
go the cooler it becomes”
3. True statement should be true enough
and false statement should be false
enough that experts should not have
different opinion
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4. The intended correct answer should only
be obvious to those who have knowledge
of what is being tested
5. The item is expressed clearly based on a
single idea
6. Simple language is used

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 Advantages of T/F Items
1. Rapidly and accurately scored
2. Take less time to construct and refine
3. Sample a large amount of subject matter
and take less time to refine
4. Writing skills, spelling and neatness are
not penalised

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 Limitation of T/F Items
1. Encourage guessing ( 50% chances of
correct guessing)
2. Do not allow for locating gaps in a
student’s knowledge
3. Do not discriminate well between high
and low achievers
4. It is difficult to construct completely true
or false statements
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 Multiple Choice Items
A multiple choice item is composed of a
stem, foils or distracters and a key
response. Thus:
[ Which of the following is a protein rich
food? ]…… Stem
a) Maize
b) Sorghum …. Distracters
c) Yams
d) Beans …… Key response
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 Rules for writing effective multiple
choice items
1. Select the distracters in such a way that
all of them are appealing to those
learners who do not posses the
knowledge demanded by the item
2. There should be 3 – 5 alternatives to
minimise guessing. ( 4 are
recommended for the test construction
project)

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3. The length of the responses should be
about the same.
4. Minimise use of negative expressions
5. Ensure the grammar used is correct
6. The stem should present the problem
accurately
7. Alternatives should be grammatically
consistent with the stem
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8. Only one alternative should be correct
9. Do not include overlapping alternatives
10. The position of the key response should
randomised

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 Advantages of multiple choice
items
1. They can be used to measure
achievement in all the levels of the
cognitive domain
2. Scoring is very objective
3. Scoring is easy (Fast)
4. Can be used for all grades
5. Easy to work out the difficulty and
discrimination levels
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 Disadvantages
1. They are difficult to construct
2. They encourage guessing
3. An item can only be used to test a bit of
information at a time

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 Matching Items
A matching item consists of two columns.
Each item in the first column is to paired
with a word or phrase in the second
column on some basis suggested
Example:

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 Match the following organisms with the
environment in which they live in:
Organism Environment
1. Lizard A. Aquatic
2. Fish B. Terrestrial
3. Frog C. Semi aquatic
D. Aerial

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 Advantages
1. Easy to construct
2. Suited for measuring mastery of
knowledge involving events and dates,
events and people, events and places,
terms and definitions

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 Disadvantages
1. There is scope for guessing
2. Analysis is difficult
3. Not well adapted for measuring
understanding
4. When equal number of items are in both
columns, the last item can obtained
without knowing it

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 Rules for construction of effective
matching items
1. Homogeneous type of material should be
used
2. Avoid unwanted cues
3. The basis for matching should be clearly
indicated

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 Completion items
• A series of sentences in which a certain
important word or phrase has been
omitted and a blank supplied to the pupils
to fill it. A sentence may contain one or
more blanks

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 Advantages
1. Minimizes guessing
2. Relatively easy to construct
Disadvantages
1. May be difficult to score for partial correct
answers
2. Scoring is made difficult by faulty scoring
or legibility of handwriting
3. May test recall than comprehension
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 Essay Items
Essays require the examinee to read the
item, formulate a response and write it
down. Essays allow the learner to:
a) Remember facts
b) Evaluate facts
c) Organise ideas around facts
d) Present the ideas in a logical coherent
form
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• The Essay question format allows the
student freedom to construct and present
ideas in their own words.
Assesses outcomes that are difficult to
measure objectively- Conceptualization,
construction, organization, integration,
relation, evaluation, and the
communication of ideas in writing.

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 Advantages
• Useful in measuring higher order mental
processes such as analysis, synthesis and
evaluation
• Encourage global effective studying habits
• Can indirectly measure attitudes, values
and opinions
• Easy to construct
• Allow the students to express themselves
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 Disadvantages
• Poor content sampling
• Take long to score
• Subjective scoring due to:
a) Halo effect – The markers general
impression of the examinee
b) Extraneous factors ( conscious and
unconscious penalties ) e.g
- Quality of hand writing
- Use of pen rather pencil
- Grammatical errors
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 Types of essay items
1. Extended items ( Unrestricted essays)
The response ranges from ½ page to
several pages. These items are used to
measure the student’s ability to deal with
complex relationships, comparisons and
evaluation. They can be used in class or
as take away assignments

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Extended essays require the learner to:
 Produce, organize, and express ideas.
 Integrate information in different areas.
 Create original forms (designing an experiment).
 Summarize (writing a summary of a story).
 Construct creative stories (narrative essay).
 Explain concepts or principals (expository
essay).
 Persuade the reader (persuasive essay).

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Advantages of the Extended essay
question
• Allows for the demonstration of higher-
order cognitive skills.
• Emphasizes integration and application of
thinking and problem solving skills.
• Measures complex achievement.
• Measures writing skills.
• Measures understanding and ability in
content, knowledge and subject area.
• Easy to construct
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 Disadvantages of the Extended
essay question
 Limited demonstration of higher-order
cognitive skills.
 Inefficient in measuring specific learning
outcomes.
 Requires complex behaviors that can not
be measured by objective means.
 Scoring may be unreliable.
 Limited inmeasuring factual knowledge.
 Time consuming to score.
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2. Short answer ( restricted essays)
The response is restricted by the number
of lines, words or writing space. The item
contains only one central idea.
The restriction of the response allows for
the measurement of specific outcomes.
Can measure a variety of complex
learning outcomes based on the student’s
ability to supply the answer
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Restricted essays requre the learner to:
• Explain cause and effect relationships.
• Describe applications of principals.
• Present relevant arguments.
• Formulate tenable hypothesis.
• Formulate valid conclusions.
• State necessary conclusions.
• Describe the limitations of data.
• Explain methods and procedures.

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Advantages of the Restricted essay
question
 The content is limited by the scope of the topic
question. Limits stated within the essay
question.
 Allows demonstration of knowledge aligned to
the desired learning outcomes.
 Measuresoutcomes that require interpretation
and application of specific information.
 Measuresa variety of complex learning
outcomes.
 Easy to construct.

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 Disadvantages of the Restricted
essay question
 Does not allow for measurement of
learning outcomes that emphasize
integration, organization, and originality.
 Scoring may be unreliable.
 Time consuming to score.

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Rules for construction of essays
1. The question should generate a
response that experts will commonly
agree
2. The task to be performed should be
completely defined
3. Give prevalence to more specific
questions
4. Construct detailed key for each item
5. Use simple language
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Methods of scoring essay items
a) Point score method
• A marking scheme (scoring key )is used
• Instructions on how to a ward marks are
provided
• The student score depends on the
points/ responses supplied

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b) Global scoring or Rating method
– The score of the student depends on the
judgment made by the expert
– Rating scales are used to ensure objectivity
– This method is applicable in scoring projects

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 Performance Test Items
This are items that test on skills. Components
of performance evaluation are:
a) object identification – the concern is the
ability of the learner to identify objects or
parts and give their functions
b) Procedure evaluation – the assessment is
based on the ability of the learner to follow
desirable steps and the level of skill with
which the learner performs
c) Product evaluation – Emphasis is placed on
the quality and or quantity of the product of
the learner’s performance
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 Considerations before a practical test
is taken
i) inform learners when they are taking practical exam
ii) allow them to practice to reduce anxiety
iii) ensure all materials are available and adequate
iv) ensure apparatus and equipment are all working
v) ensure the room/ lab is well set
vi) ensure the examination papers are adequate
vii) rehearse the practical to ensure it works as desired
viii) put measures in place in case of an accident

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Effective scoring of essay items
1. Score students scripts anonymously; let
the students use their numbers instead
of their names
2. Score all responses to each item for all
students before moving to the next item
3. Score spelling, grammar, writing style if
only that is part of the testing objectives
4. Allow another expert to counter check
your scoring if there is some doubt
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 The Marking scheme
• Marking scheme is an ideal response
prepared for each question (Item) in the
test
• Features of a good marking scheme:
– Has administrative details which assist in filing
and retrieval of the document e.g the school,
subject and level
– Identifies sections if the exist in the test paper

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 –Shows the item number e.g Q1
–Indicates the item requirement e.g
Q1. Qualities of a good test
– Provides all the possible response sets
– Gives instructions for scoring/ awarding
marks
e.g

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Q1. State three qualities of a good test (3 Marks)
Marking Scheme:
Q1. Qualities of a good test
i. Test items should be free of ambiguities
ii. Items should not be excessively worded
iii.Items should be framed in the appropriate format
iv.Items should have appropriate difficulty level
v. Items should have appropriate discrimination power
[ Award @ 1mk, max 3 marks]

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