MEASURE WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO MEASURE
	MEASURE AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE
	EASY TO ADMINISTER, TAKE, AND SCORE
	WELL BALANCED WITH A VARIETY OF ITEMS
	BE A POSITIVE TEACHING TOOL

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VARIOUS TEST ITEMS

ADVANTAGES:

Multiple choice items --

I. Measures Student's ability to interpret and make application of subject matter learned.

2. Designed to measure understanding more than simple recall.

3. Can be scored objectively.

4. Guessing is reduced.

5. Students usually understand how to respond to these type of test item.

Completion items --

1.Measure retention of specific points.

2. Easy to construct.

3. Wide application.

4. High discriminating value.

Matching items --

1. Applicable to numerous situations.

2. Easy to construct.

3. Objective in nature.

4. Easy to score.

5. Minimizes guessing factor.

True-False items --

I. Easy to construct.

2. Adaptive to a wide range of subject matter.

3. Large number can be used on exam; thus helps to increase test reliability.

4. Entirely objective in scoring.

Essay items --

1. Assess understanding, thinking, reasoning, and decision making rather than objective items.

2. Can assess the affective domain.

3. Promote greater depth of understanding of subject matter.

4. Lazy to construct.

DISADVANTAGES:

a. Multiple choice items --

1. Difficult to identify four (4) distracters of equal quality

2. Difficult to construct on (1) correct answer.

3. Time consuming to construct.

b. Completion items --

1. Over emphasize memorization.

2. Difficult to avoid subjectivity -scoring.

3. Difficult to measure understanding.

4. Student cannot always recall "exact wording"

5. Low level mental activity (recall).

c. Matching items --

1. Poor measure of complete understanding.

2. Difficult to assess ability to make application in subject matter.

3. Over emphasis on memorization of facts.

d. True-False items --

1. Doubtful value for measuring achievement.

2. Encourages guessing and memorization.

3. Difficult to construct completely true or completely false statements.

4. Low reliability per item.

e. Essay items—

1. Low Reliability

2. Lack of uniformity in grading

3. Tends to measure ability to organize and outline rather than understanding of subject matter.

GENERAL GUIDELINES THAT SHOULD BE FOLLOWED WHEN CONSTRUCTING TESTS

1. Start with educational objectives ...

"Evaluation must be made in light of educational objectives"

2. Make use of several types of questions.

3.Design test items with appropriate degree of difficulty.

4.Refer to the same references that students used.

5. Group the items by type of test items.

6. Arrange items in order of increasing difficulty.

7. Include clear directions for each group of items.

8. Devise your items so that they require the student to actually apply things learned rather than merely recalling or recognizing facts.

9. Include a large number of items in the test. This tends to increase reliability.

10. Make each item independent of the others. Do not have the correct answer to one item dependent upon the answer to another or that one question answers another.

1. LIST EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES (Refer to unit objectives. )

2. CONSTRUCT ONE OR MORE TYPES OF TEST ITEMS FOR EACH OBJECTIVE.

3. ASSEMBLE THE ITEMS, BY TYPE, FOR THE TEST.

4. WRITE CLEAR AND CONCISE DIRECTIONS FOR EACH TYPE OF QUESTION.

5. REVIEW FOR "FACE VALIDITY".

6 .CONSTRUCT KEY -"DESK COPY" .

7. CONDUCT PRE TEST -(Eliminate ambiguous, vague, misleading test items or those that can be answered by common knowledge or experience).

8. COMPLETE "ITEM ANALYSIS" TO DETERMINE DISCRIMINATION POWER OF EACH ITEM.