How to Take Tests I Background On Testing

Teacher’s Perspective Teachers are taught to prepare instructional objectives for each subject they teach Their instructional objectives are essentially what they hope to teach To ensure that their objectives are met, they develop tests

Understanding Tests In a test you are asked to demonstrate your proficiency A test item calls for a single response or a set of responses In general, measurement is on the basis of correct answers The measurement is then evaluated

Evaluation Process There are two kinds of evaluation processes: norm-referenced criterion-referenced

Evaluation Process Norm-referenced you are compared to other students entire class measurement is grouped into a bell curve grade depends on where your score is on the curve

Evaluation Process Criterion-referenced grading a student to an objective standard. For example: 90% and above is an A, 80% to 90% is a B, etc.

Is The Test Working??? Teachers use criterion item questions to determine if instructional objectives were met to test your proficiency If the class doesn’t seem to be learning (usually discovered by poor test grades), teachers may develop a diagnostic test

Diagnostic Tests Designed to see why certain criterion has not been achieved Determines what material to concentrate on Some teachers combine both criterion based and diagnostic questions in a single test

Test Taking When taking a test, it may help to be able to tell if questions are criterion based or diagnostic

Test Taking Diagnostic questions usually have answers which represent a fragment of the material taught rather than the whole lesson.

Test Taking For example, if students have problems determining the perimeter or area of a rectangle on geometry tests, the teacher might make up a diagnostic test.

The Exam The diagnostic exam might ask for the measurement of a single side of a rectangle.

The Exam A criterion-based question would have asked for the perimeter or area. In the diagnostic version, the teacher would try to determine whether the students knew how to find the length of a side.

The Result If there was a problem doing this, then the teacher would revise his/her lesson plan to include more measurement activities.