INTERPRETING TEST SCORE

PREPARED BY :
MUHAMMAD HUSSAIN
 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, the students will be able to:
understand what are the test score?
understand what are the measurement scales used for test scores?
ways of interpreting test score
clarifying the accuracy of the test scores
explain the meaning of test scores
interpret test scores
usability of test scores
learn basic and significant concepts of statistics
understand and usage of central tendency in educational measurements
understand and usage of measure of variation in educational measurements
planning and administration of test
 INTRODUCTION
Raw scores are considering as points scored in test when the test is scored
according to the set procedure or rubric of marking. These points are not
meaningful without interpretation or further information. Criterion referenced
interpretation of test scores describes students’ scores with respect to certain
criteria while norm referenced interpretation of test scores describes students’
score relative to the test takers. Test results are generally reported to parents as a
feedback of their young one’s learning achievements. Parents have different
academic backgrounds so results should be presented them in understandable and
usable way. Among various objectives three of the fundamental purposes for
testing are (1) to portray each student's developmental level within a test area, (2)
to identify a student's relative strength and weakness in subject areas, and (3) to
monitor time-to-time learning of the basic skills.
 Measurement Scales and Interpretation of Test

All types of research data, test result data, survey data, etc is called raw data and
collected using four basic scales. Nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio are four basic
scales for data collection. Ratio is more sophisticated than interval, interval is more
sophisticated than ordinal, and ordinal is more sophisticated than nominal. A
variable measured on a "nominal" scale is a variable that does not really have any
evaluative distinction. One value is really not any greater than another. A good
example of a nominal variable is gender. With nominal variables, there is a
qualitative difference between values, not a quantitative one. Something measured
on an "ordinal" scale does have an evaluative connotation. One value is greater or
larger or better than the other. With ordinal scales, we only know that one value is
better than other or 10 is better than 9. A variable measured on interval or ration
scale has maximum evaluative distinction.
Nominal Scale
Nominal scales are the lowest scales of measurement. A nominal scale, as the name implies, is
simply some placing of data into categories, without any order or structure. You are only
allowed to examine if a nominal scale datum is equal to some particular value or to count the
number of occurrences of each value. For example, categorization of blood groups of
classmates into A, B. AB, O etc. In The only mathematical operation we can perform with
nominal data is to count. Variables assessed on a nominal scale are called categorical
variables; Categorical data are measured on nominal scales which merely assign labels to
distinguish categories. For example, gender is a nominal scale variable. Classifying people
according to gender is a common application of a nominal scale.
Ordinal Scale
Something measured on an "ordinal" scale does have an evaluative connotation. You are also
allowed to examine if an ordinal scale datum is less than or greater than another value. For
example rating of job satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 representing complete
satisfaction. With ordinal scales, we only know that 2 is better than 1 or 10 is better than 9;
we do not know by how much. It may vary. Hence, you can 'rank' ordinal data, but you
cannot 'quantify' differences between two ordinal values. Nominal scale properties are
included in ordinal scale.
Interval Scale
An ordinal scale has quantifiable difference between values become interval scale. You are allowed to
quantify the difference between two interval scale values but there is no natural zero. A variable measured
on an interval scale gives information about more or better as ordinal scales do, but interval variables have
an equal distance between each value. The distance between 1 and 2 is equal to the distance between 9 and
10. For example, temperature scales are interval data with 25C warmer than 20C and a 5C difference has
some physical meaning. Note that 0C is arbitrary, so that it does not make sense to say that 20C is twice as
hot as 10C but there is the exact same difference between 100C and 90C as there is between 42C and 32C.
Students’ achievement scores are measured on interval scale
Ratio Scale
Something measured on a ratio scale has the same properties that an interval scale has except, with a ratio
scaling, there is an absolute zero point. Temperature measured in Kelvin is an example. There is no value
possible below 0 degrees Kelvin, it is absolute zero. Physical measurements of height, weight, length are
typically ratio variables. Weight is another example, 0 lbs. is a meaningful absence of weight. This ratio
hold true regardless of which scale the object is being measured in (e.g. meters or yards). This is because
there is a natural zero.
Ratio Data
ordered, constant scale, natural zero
e.g., height, weight, age, length
PERCENTILE RANK
 A percentile is a measure that
tells us what percent of the total
frequency scored at or below that
measure. A
percentile rank is the percentage
of scores that fall at or below a
given score.
Example
If Aslam stand 25th out of a class of 150 students, then 125 students were ranked
below Aslam.
Formula
To find the percentile rank of a score, x, out of a set of n scores, where x is included:
Where B = number of scores below x
E = number of scores equal to x
n = number of scores
ADVANTAGES
 Laypeople easily understand
them

 Easy to interpret
LIMITATIONS
 Percentile differences are not
equal
KEEP IN MIND

Percentile rank is a number between 0 and 100 indicating the percent of cases falling at or below that
score.
Percentile ranks are usually written to the nearest whole percent: 64.5% = 65% = 65th percentile
Scores are divided into 100 equally sized groups.
Scores are arranged in rank order from lowest to highest.
There is no 0 percentile rank - the lowest score is at the first percentile.
There is no 100th percentile - the highest score is at the 99th percentile.
Percentiles have the disadvantage that they are not equal units of measurement.
Percentiles cannot be averaged nor treated in any other way mathematically.
You cannot perform the same mathematical operations on percentiles that you can on raw scores. You
cannot, for example, compute the mean of percentile scores, as the results may be misleading.
Quartiles can be thought of as percentile measure. Remember that quartiles break the data set into 4
equal parts. If 100% is broken into four equal parts, we have subdivisions at 25%, 50%, and 75% .creating
the:
First quartile (lower quartile) to be at the 25th percentile.
Median (or second quartile) to be at the 50th percentile.
Third quartile (upper quartile) to be a the 75th percentile.
 Interpreting Test Scores by Percentages

The number of questions a student gets right on a test is the

student's raw score (assuming each question is worth one
point).

Marks Otained /TOTAL Marks x 100= % marks

 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

▶Introduction ▶An average is a single value, which represents

the set of data as whole. Since the average tends to lie in the
center of distribution they are also called measure of central
tendency. There are three methods of measuring the center of
any data.
▶Arithmetic mean ▶The Median ▶The Mode
▶Geometric mean ▶Harmonic mean
 MEAN OR AVERAGE

▶Arithmetic Mean ▶It is defined as the sum of all the

observations divided by
the number of observations. It is denoted by X. ▶When to use
Arithmetic Mean ▶We use arithmetic mean, when we are
required to study
social, economic and commercial problems like production,
price, export and import. It helps in getting average income,
average price, average production etc.
 EXAMPLE OF MEAN

▶Example: ▶5, 10, 12, 16, 8, 42, 25, 15, 10, 7 ▶Solution:
5+10+12+16+8+42+25+15+10+7=150/10 ▶ Mean = 15
 ADVANTAGES OF MEAN

▶It should be rigidly defined and easy to understand.

▶It should be easy to calculate.
▶It should be based on all the observations of the data.
▶It should be unaffected by extreme observations.
▶It should have sampling stability
 DISADVANTAGES OF MEAN

▶It is highly affected by extreme values.

▶It cannot be accurately calculated for open end frequency
distribution.
▶It cannot be calculated accurately if any observation is
missing.
 MEDIAN

▶Median is the middle most value of a set of data when the

data is arranged in order of magnitude. If the number of
observations is in odd form, then median is the mid value and
if the number of observations is even form, then median is the
average of two middle values.
CONT….

▶When we Apply Median ▶We apply median to the situations,

when the direct
measurements of variables are not possible like poverty,
beauty and intelligence etc.
 EXAMPLE MEDIAN

▶Median ▶Example: 12,15, 10, 20, 18, 25, 45, 30, 26 ▶We
need to make order of the data

10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 26, 30, 45 ▶

So Mean = 20
 ADVANTAGES MEDIAN
▶It is easy to calculate and understand.
▶It is not affected by extreme values.
▶It can be computed even in open end frequency
distribution.
▶It can be used for qualitative data.
▶It can be located graphically.
 DISADVANTAGES MEDIAN

▶It is not rigorously defined.

▶It is not based on all the observations.
▶It is not suitable for further algebraic treatment.
 MODE

▶The most frequent value that occurs in the set of data is

called
mode. A set of data may have more than one mode or no
mode. When it has one mode it is called uni-modal. When it
has two or three modes it is called bi-modal or tri-modal
respectively. ▶Example ▶12, 24, 15, 18, 30, 48, 20, 24 ▶So
Mode = 24
 APPLICATION OF MODE

▶When to apply Mode ▶We apply mode when it is required to

study the problems
like average size of shoes, average size of readymade
garments, and average size of agriculture holding. This
average is widely used in Biology and Meteorology.
 ADVANTAGES OF MODE

▶It is easy to understand. ▶It is not affected by extreme values.

▶It can be computed even in open-end classes. ▶It can be
useful in qualitative data.
 DISADVANTAGES OF MODE

▶It is not clearly defined. ▶It is not suitable for further

algebraic treatment. ▶It is not based on all the observations.
▶It may not exist in some cases.
 MEASURES OF DISPERSION

▶The measure of central tendency does not tell us

anything about the spread data because any two sets of data
may have same central tendency with vast difference
magnitude of variability. Consider two types of data sets have
same mean but different reliability. ▶10, 12, 11, 14, 13 ▶10,
2, 18, 27, 3
 MEASURES OF DISPERSION

▶These two data have same mean 12, but differ in their
variations. There is more variation in data (b) as compared to
data (a). This illustrates the fact that of central tendency is not
sufficient. We therefore need some additional information
concerning with how the data are dispersed about the
average. This is measuring the dispersion. By dispersion we
mean the degree to which data tend to spread about an
average value.
 TYPES MEASURES OF DISPERSION

There are two types of measures of dispersion, absolute and

relative dispersion.
CONT…
▶Measures of Dispersion

▶The Range

▶The semi Interquartile Range or the Quartile Deviation

▶The Mean Deviation

▶The variance and the standard deviation

 RANGE

▶It is defined as difference between largest and smallest

observations in a set of data. Range = R = Xm - X0 ▶Where Xm =
the largest observation X0 = the smallest
observation. The range is very simple measure of variability
and only concerned with two most extreme observations. Its
relative measure is known as the co- efficient of dispersion.
Xm - Xo ▶Co-efficient of Range = Xm + Xo
 EXAMPLE OF RANGE

▶Example: ▶Calculate Range and Co-efficient of Range from

the
following data. 15, 20, 18, 16, 30, 42, 12, 25 ▶Solution: ▶Xm
= 42, Xo = 12 R = Xm — Xo =42-12 = 30
 STANDARD DEVIATION
Standard deviation is the most commonly
used and the most important measure of
variation. ▶ It determines whether the scores are generally
near or far from the mean. ▶ In simple words, standard
deviation tells how tightly all the scores are clustered
around the mean in a data set.
CONT…

▶ When the scores are close to the mean,

standard deviation is small. And large
standard deviation tells that the scores are
spread apart. Standard deviation is simply
square root of variance
 VARIANCE

▶Variance (σ2) in statistics is a measurement of the spread

between numbers in a data set. That is, it measures how far
each number in the set is from the mean and therefore from
every other number in the set. ▶Variance measures how far a data set is
spread out. It is mathematically defined as the average of the
squared differences from the mean.
 NORMAL CURVE

▶One way of presenting out how data are distributed is to plot

them in a graph. ▶If the data is evenly distributed, our graph will come across a
curve. ▶In statistics this curve is called a normal curve and in social sciences, it
is called the bell curve. ▶Normal or bell curved is distribution of data may
naturally occur in several possible ways, with
a number of possibilities for standard deviation
 SKEWNESS

Skewness tells us about the amount and direction of the

variation of the data set.
It is a measure of symmetry. A distribution or data set is

symmetric if it looks the same to the left and right of the

central point.
If bulk of data is at the left i.e. the peak is towards left and

the right tail is longer, we say that the distribution is skewed

right or positively skewed.
 MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
• For a nominal variable, the mode is the only measure
that can be used.
• For ordinal variables, the mode and the median may
be used. The median provides more information
(taking into account the ranking of categories.)
• For interval-ratio variables, the mode, median, and mean
may all be calculated. The mean provides the most
information about the distribution, but the median is
preferred if the distribution is skewed.
 CIRCLE GRAPH (PIE CHART)

Displays data using a circle divided into

sectors. We use a circle graph (also
called a pie chart) to show how data
represent portions of one
whole or one group.
Notice each sector is
represented by %.
 BAR GRAPH
Displays data by using bars of equal width
on a grid. The bars may be vertical or
horizontal. Bar graphs are used for
comparisons.
 PICTOGRAPH

Uses pictures and symbols to display data;

each picture or symbol can represent more
than one object; a key tells what each picture
represents.
 BROKEN LINE GRAPH
A graph showing data points joined by line
segments to show trends over time.
 CONTINUOUS LINE GRAPH
A graph in which points on the line between
the plotted points also have meaning.
Sometimes, this is a “best fit” graph where
a straight line is drawn to fit the data
points. Notice that the
Independent variable is on the
X axis, & the dependent is
on the Y axis.
 SCATTER PLOTS

A graph of data that is a set of points.

Thanks for your attention