Table of Specifications (TOS)

“To be able to prepare a good test, one has to have mastery of the subject matter, knowledge of the pupils to be
tested, skill in verbal expression, and the use of the different test formats.”
- Evaluating Educational Outcomes
(Oriondo & Antonio, 1984)

S.M.A.R.T Goals
S - Specific : objectives must be clear and precise based on what you want to achieve in tests.
M - Measurable : must be able to quantify or measure the achievement based on the objectives and often
involves setting criteria or standards.
A - Achievable : objectives must be realistic and attainable given the resources and constraints you have.
R - Relevant : objectives must be aligned with the purpose of the test and the learning outcomes that want to
assess.
T - Time-bound : objectives must have a specific timeframe or deadline for achievement

Bloom's Taxonomy
❖ Bloom's Taxonomy: Model describing cognitive processes of learning and mastery.
❖ Named after Benjamin Bloom.
❖ Developed by a committee of researchers and educators in the 1950s and 60s.
❖ Describes hierarchical levels of cognitive skills: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing,
Evaluating, and Creating.

KNOWLEDGE(Remembering)
Includes those objectives that deal with recall, recognize facts, terminology, etc.
Example: Which Philippine national hero is depicted on the one-peso coin? JOSE RIZAL

COMPREHENSION(Understanding)
Includes some level of understanding. It requires the learners to change the form of communication to see the
connection of relation among parts of a communication (interpretation) or draw a conclusion (inference).
Example: How would you describe the difference between a square and a circle?

APPLICATION (Applying)
It requires the pupils to use previously acquired information in a setting other than the one in which it was learned.
Example: Can you demonstrate how to add two numbers together?

ANALYSIS (Analysing)
It requires the pupils to identify the logical errors, differentiate among facts, opinions, assumptions, hypothesis or
conclusions, draw relationships among ideas or to compare and contrast.
Example: What are the causes and effects of pollution on the environment?

EVALUATION (Evaluating)
Under this objective, the learners are required to form judgements about the value of methods, ideas, people or
products that have a specific purpose.
Example: How effective are the government's efforts in addressing poverty and inequality in the Philippines?

SYNTHESIS (Creating)
Objectives at this level require the pupils to produce something unique or original. Test questions at this level
require the pupils to solve unfamiliar problems or combine parts to form a unique or novel whole.
Example: Create a multimedia presentation on a historical event from multiple perspectives.

DECIDING ON THE TYPE OF OBJECTIVE TEST TO BE PREPARED

The test objectives guide the kind of objective tests that will be designed and
constructed by the teacher.

Things to consider when making a test:

● Length of test: This means deciding how many questions will be on the test. It's
important to find a balance so that the test is not too long or too short for the amount of
time available.
● Weight to be given to each objective: This refers to how important each specific
learning goal or objective is. Some objectives may be more crucial than others, so they
should have more questions related to them on the test.
● Weight to be given to each level of taxonomy: This involves considering how much
 emphasis to place on different types of thinking skills. For example, a test may focus
more on basic knowledge recall or on higher-level thinking like analysis or application.
● Estimate number of items in each cell: This means estimating how many questions
should be devoted to each combination of objective and level of thinking. It helps
ensure that each important area is adequately covered in the test.

For the first four levels of bloom’s taxonomy which are remembering, understanding, applying,
and analyzing, the teacher can construct a test using the OBJECTIVE TYPE of the test.

OBJECTIVE TYPE
Selection Type: Multiple choice, true or false, matching type
Strengths: can have many items, highly structured, scoring quick, easy, accurate
Supply type: Short Answer, Completion Type
Limitations: Cannot assess higher level skills (problem solving, organization, creativity)

For the last two levels of bloom’s taxonomy which are evaluating and creating, teachers can
use SUBJECTIVE TYPE of the test.

SUBJECTIVE TYPE
Selection type: Essay
Strengths: can assess higher level skills, more realistic
Limitations: Inefficient for measuring knowledge, Few items, Time consuming, Scoring
difficult.

TABLE OF SPECIFICATIONS
What is the table of specifications?
● A plan prepared by the teacher as a tool used to ensure that a test or assessment measures the content and
thinking skills that the test intends to measure.
● Test Blueprint - Classroom tests needs to measure test and thinking skills, that’s why it's called a blueprint. It is
where you can see if your test passed the standard measures.
Importance
● Ensures fair and representative questions
○ What is easy and has definitions tend to get more focus
○ We need to represent other learning competencies
○ Number of questions + Numbers of hours spent teaching
● Improve the teacher’s validity of evaluations because it helps align closely with the stated learning objectives or
competencies
● Helps teachers identify what type of test to use
● TOS helps measure the higher thinking skills and lower thinking skills of students
What you need to know before constructing a TOS
● Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
○ Classification of thinking organized by levels of complexity

II. DEFINITION AND DIFFERENCES

ONE-WAY TABLE OF SPECIFICATION TWO-WAY TABLE OF SPECIFICATION

● A one-way table of specifications ● Provides a more thorough and nuanced

outlines the content or topic areas that assessment approach, ensuring that
assessment items or questions should the evaluation includes a variety of
cover. material and evaluates
 ● It often includes a list of the many
several levels or types of cognitive
content areas, disciplines, or topics
ability. It helps maintain content
that the assessment will cover.
validity and cognitive validity by
● A one-way table of specifications is
addressing what must be covered and
appropriate when you want to ensure
how it must be assessed.
that a test adequately samples
● It categorizes assessment items
various content areas without
based on both what they are testing
considering different cognitive
(content) and how they are testing it
levels.
(cognitive level).

DIFFERENCE

one way- ginagamit kapag gusto mo i ensure na yung test ay accurate ba sa samples various content nang hindi
kinokonsider yung different cognitive levels

two way- kina-categorize nito yung assessment items based sa kung ano yung gusto i assess which is content
and cognitive level

Akshali both naman sila ineensure na accurate yung assessment. The difference mainly is on the structure of the
assessment. Sa one way, yung numbering of items ay magkakasunod per topic/objective. For example, topic mo
is Verb then ang no of items mo dun is 1,2,3,4,5.

On the other hand, two way TOS naman is naka randomly placed ang number of items. For example, topic is Verb
then based sa calculation mo dapat may 5 items dun. And gusto mo sa 5 items na yun mahihit niya yung different
layers of Bloom's Taxonomy then pwedeng numbering mo is 1 for Remembering, 7 and 8 for Understanding, 16
for Analyzing, 28 for Creating

ayan din sa two way kasi dun na applicable yung bloom taxonomy

A one-way table focuses solely on content domains or topics, while a two-way table considers
both content domains and cognitive levels. Two-way tables provide a more comprehensive
assessment plan, ensuring that assessments are well-balanced in terms of content and
cognitive complexity. They are frequently used when creating evaluations that are in line with
certain learning objectives and anticipated results.

CATEGORIES OF TEST TYPES

a. Supply Type

● Completion
● Short answer
● Essay-restricted
● Essay-extended

b. Selection Type

● Binary choice
● Multiple choice
● Matching type

c. Performance Type

● Paper-pencil
● Identification
● Simulated performance
 ● Work sample

(OBJECTIVE SUPPLY TYPE ITEM CONSTRUCTION)

Completion and short-answer are the test included under the obiective supply type and the
following are the similarities between the completion and short answer:

● Cover remembering and comprehension levels in the Bloom's taxonomy.

● Ask for recall of facts or information

● Answer range from keyword/s to phrases

1. Completion Type

A completion type is an item structure which consists of a stimulus that defines a problem or
question, and a response which defines what is to be constructed or provided by the
students. For a completion test item, a statement which is incomplete
with a blank is often utilized as stimulus and the response is a constructed symbol, word,
numeral or phrase to complete the statement.

Completion Type Examples

1. A five-sided polygon is called ______

2. Noli Me Tangere was written by Dr. Rizal during the ________ colonial period. 3. A
salesman sells magazines 20% more than what he pays for the said magazines. For a
magazine sold for Php° 200, his profits is _______ pesos.

Gap Filling

● Instead of a set of independent statements which are incomplete as the stimulus, a

discourse with gaps is utilized to make it more communicative. ● Often used by language
teachers where more than one skill type is needed to fill in the gaps.

Things to consider in writing effective completion questions

1. Write each test item to tap into the kind of thinking and the content in important learning
outcomes.
2. Design test items so that students should supply an important word or concept 3. Insert
or place a blank where an answer is expected.
4. Avoid grammatical or other clues.

2. Short answer items

relatively short answers are constructed as direct answers to questions instead of

supplying words to complete statements.

Short answer items examples

1. What is a five-sided polygon called?

2. During what period was Noli Me Tangere written by Dr. Rizal? 3. How much does a
salesman gain for a magazine he sells for Php200 if he gets 20% more than what he pays
for it?

Guidelines in the constructing short answer items

1. Provide clear and definite directions.

2. Avoid limitless or excessive wording or information.
3. Make sure that the answer key matches the items in the test.
4. Avoid "give away" items.
5. Avoid test items which are tricky.
6. Utilize the question form if possible.
7. In order to have only one possible intended answer, word each item in the test in specific
terms with clear meanings. If done well, the answer will be a single word, number or a
brief phrase.
 8. Copying statements word for word from classroom materials or tests should be avoided.
9. State the numerical units, precision or accuracy degree expected of the answer.
10. To avoid unimportant clues or specific determiners, word the test item. 11.
Utilized some fill in the blank test items.

Non-objective supply types

1. Restricted-response essay
2. Extended-response essay

Restricted-response essay

In this type of essay, a directive or a question given suggests a specification in constructing

the response. It can be in terms of specified length of response, limited coverage of content,
expected form of response or mindset to be utilized or definitive perspective.

Examples:

● What is the famous spot for tourism in Visayas and why it is popular?(Restricted content)
● On a half sheet of pad paper, describe the benefits which could be enjoyed from
Samahang Kabataan as an organization. (Restricted length)

2. Extended-response essay

In this type of essay, the directive or question does not suggest any form of restriction in the
response construction. The students are free to organize and expound on their ideas freely.

Examples:

● Explain how the popular socio-economic issues affect the people's lives in our country
today.
● What climate change evidences do you now observe and what ways can man alleviate
their bad effects?
Things to consider in constructing essay exam

1. Clearly state questions.

2. Relatively larger number of questions should be included.
3. Guard against having too many test items
4. Indicate an appropriate response length
5. If necessary, set time limits.
6. Note graded weights to questions

Selected-response types

selected-response types involve choosing the most correct or nearly best option to answer
a problem.

The construction of plausible options or distracters is the greatest challenge for this item format
so that not one stands out as attractively correct.

1. Alternate Form or the Binary Choice

2. Multiple choice
3. Matching Type

1. Alternate Form or the Binary Choice

The propositional statement veracity are judged by students indicating whether they are correct
or incorrect, true or false or whether they agree or disagree with the idea or thought judged to
be false or incorrect more or less challenges the learners' reasoning ability and raises the
outcome level which can be assessed.

Varieties of alternate form or binary choice

1. True - False
2. Yes - No
 3. Right - Wrong
4. Correction
5. Multiple true-false
6. Yes-No with explanation

Things to consider in constructing True or

False

● Utilize simple and direct language in declarative sentences.

● Correct part of the statement should be presented first and vary the truth or falsity of
the second part in case when statement expresses a relationship (if, then; cause,
effect)
● Statements in the test should be absolute without qualification ● Every part of the
sentence which is true should be "true" and when any one part of the sentence is false, the
whole sentence is false.
● Paraphrasing should be done not directly quoting from a source. Focus on differentiating
should be maintained and issues on copyright should be avoided. ● If necessary, include
background, context and qualifications
● Substitution or experimentation with variety is advisable in developing a question with
qualifier, absolute word or negative so as to find the best phrase and assessment.

2., Multiple choice

Because of its versatility to assess various understanding levels from knowledge and simple
understanding to deep understanding, multiple choice is widely chosen. Aside from the ability
to assess different outcome levels, multiple choice items are easy to score, more familiar to
students as they often encounter in different events of testing and less susceptible to
guessing than alternate-choice

Example:

- What form of government is ruled by a President?

● Monarchy
● Parliamentary •
● Presidential
● Federal

Guidelines in constructing the stems and distracters for Multiple Choice items

STEMS:

1. All the words of the stem must be important to the task. It means stating the problem
significantly and clearly so that students will understand what is expected to be answered.

1. Stem should be distinctive by itself and should fully contain the problem. This should
be observe especially when the stem utilizes an incomplete statement format.
2. The stem should utilize a question with only one and clear best answer.
Guidelines in constructing the stems and distracters for Multiple Choice items

DISTRACTERS:

1. All distracters must appear effective to uninformed test takers. 2. Assign

correct answers randomly to alternative positions.

3. As much as possible, avoid utilizing "All of the Above" or None of the Above" as distracters
because students without much thinking, may tend to choose these options.

3. Matching type

These items consists of two lists of words or phrases which are parallel to each other and
students are tasked to pair them.

● Premises - the first line which is to be matched.

 ● Options/Responses - the other list from which to choose its match based on a kind of
association.

Best practices in constructing Matching

Types may be considered

1. Keep questions straightforward and short.

Unnecessary words should be avoided.

2. In constructing Matching Type items, it is advisable to not to get carried away adding
additional items. 10-12 items may be considered
3. Arranging the items in the left column according to some criteria is best -
chronologically, alphabetically.
4. Making sure that no item in the right column can be matched to more than one item in
the left one as much as possible.
5. Positioning matching test questions in such a way that the list is separated in two by a
page break should be avoided. Students must not have to go back and forth trying to
match questions on one page to answer on the other.
6. In constructing answers, trying to keep them interconnected by theme and the
presentation manner.