Lesson 5.

Development of Varied Assessment Tools

Assessment is a systematic process of gathering information about what a student knows, is
able to do, and is learning to do. Assessment information provides the foundation for decision-
making and planning for instruction and learning. Assessment is an integral part of instruction that
enhances, empowers, and celebrates student learning. Using a variety of assessment techniques,
teachers gather information about what students know and are able to do, and provide positive,
supportive feedback to students. They also use this information to diagnose individual needs and to
improve their instructional programs, which in turn helps students learn more effectively.

Assessment in classroom environment is accountability focused as it reflects the success of

the teacher and learners in the teaching-learning process. The test results can be inferred to speak
how well the learners have studied hard to hurdle the subject or course and the teachers, of how
effectively well they have delivered instruction. Teachers use summative testing as their principal
means to arrive at objective measures of students’ performance, a practice also well accepted by the
stakeholders. This lesson intends to assist you in planning for the development of classroom-based
tests to ensure their validity for measuring student achievement.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson/topics, the students are expected to:
1. Construct paper and pencil tests in accordance with the guidelines in test construction;
2. Prepare Table of Specifications (TOS) according to a given and/or self-made test
questions.
3. Utilize the levels in the cognitive domains in constructing pencil-and paper test items;
and
4. Improve and critique test items that do not efficiently assess the students’ learning
according to the given intended learning outcomes.

Discussion
5.1 Planning a Test and Construction of Table of Specifications (ToS)
The important steps in planning for a test are:
 Identifying test objectives/lesson outcomes
 Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared
 Preparing a Table of Specifications (ToS)
 Constructing the draft test items
 Try-out and validation
 An objective test, if it is to be comprehensive, must cover the various levels of Bloom’s
taxonomy. Each objective consists of a statement of what is to be achieved preferably by the
students.

The most common form of objective test uses multiple-choice items. Each item consists of a
stem, which is a question or problem, followed by several response options. The response options
include the correct or best answer and several foils that are plausible, but incorrect or inadequate
answers to the stem.

Five ways to improve objective tests

1. Test what you actually taught. Good tests cover the content and objectives the
instructor actually taught—this is called content validity. For example, if you devote a lot
of time to a particular topic in a unit you would use more test items on that topic than on
minor topics. The same is true for objectives. If you devote a lot of time teaching a
particular objective, say the ability to analyze the subject matter, then the test would
include items that assess students’ ability to analyze the material.

2. Improve test items. There are well established rules and guidelines for writing good test
items. Using a few simple rules can improve the quality of your tests.

3. Write items that assess complex learning objectives. A popular criticism of m-c tests
is that they only measure what students remember (recall or recognize] about the course
material. There is nothing wrong with testing for basic knowledge or familiarity with
content, especially if it is important for students to have a working knowledge of
terminology, facts, and principles, etc. But instructors also address more complex
objectives such as understanding, problem solving, application, analysis and evaluation
of the material. Writing m-c items that measure higher-level objectives is challenging but
attainable.

4. Improve overall test construction and administration. Good test items are only one
aspect of a good test. Additional considerations include the clarity of instructions,
organization of items on the test, test length and time limits.

Examples:

 Organize blocks of test items according to topics. List all the items for Topic A
followed by all the items for Topic B and so forth. This reduces the cognitive load on
students during the test. If items appear randomly by topic, students must quickly
switch back and forth through the material rather than focusing on a single topic
before moving on to the next.

 Provide sufficient time for students to complete the test. Students differ in how
quickly they read, process information and formulate ideas. Pressure to complete
tests quickly can disadvantage slower-responding students and underestimate their
knowledge of the subject.

 Improve test items by getting feedback.

 5. Use feedback to improve test items. Revise test items based on feedback from
colleagues, students and statistical analyses.

Examples:

 Feedback from colleagues. Several instructors who teach the same course can
quickly review one another’s test items and develop a shared pool of good items.

 Feedback from students. Review test results with students. This is an opportunity to
give feedback to students, and also get feedback from them about test items.

 Statistical Item Analysis. If you have tests scored by ITS, you receive an item analysis
that provides item difficulty and item discrimination.

Preparing TABLE of SPECIFICATION (ToS)

Essentially, a table of specification is a table chart that breaks down the topics that will be on a
test and the amount of test questions or percentage of weight each section will have on the final test
grade. This kind of table chart is usually split into two charts, and each sub topic is numbered under
the main topics that are being covered for the test. This type of table is mainly used by
teachers to help break down their testing outline on a specific subject. Some teachers use this
particular table as their teaching guideline by breaking the table into subjects, the teachers’ main
points much time should be spent on the point, and what assignment or project can be done to help
the student learn the subject.

So how do you create a table of specifications?

 Step 1- Determine the coverage of your exam.
The first rule in making exams and therefore in making a document called table of
specification is to make sure the coverage of your exam is something that you have
satisfactorily taught in class. Select the topics that you wish to test in the exam. It is possible
that you will not be able to cover all these topics as it might create a test that is too long and
will not be realistic for your students in the given time. So, select only the most important
topics.
 Step 2- Determine your testing objectives for each topic area.
In this step, you will need to be familiar with bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills. Bloom has
identified the hierarchy of learning objectives, from the lower thinking skills of knowledge
and comprehension to the higher thinking skills of evaluation and synthesis.
Bloom’s Taxonomy has six categories: (starting from lower level to highest)
- (1) Knowledge, (2) Comprehension, (3) Application, (4) Analysis, (5) Synthesis and (6)
Evaluation. So, for each content area that you wish to test, you will have to determine how
you will test each area. Will you test simply their recall of knowledge? Or will you be testing
their comprehension of the matter? Or perhaps you will be challenging them to analyze and
compare and contrast something. Again, this would depend on your instructional objectives
 in the classroom. Did you teach them lower thinking skills or did you challenge them by
making them think critically?
 Step 3- Determine the duration for each content area.
The next step in making the table of specifications is to write down how long you
spent teaching a particular topic. This is important because it will determine how many
points you should devote for each topic. Logically, the longer time you spent on teaching a
material, then the more questions should be devoted for that area.
 Step 4- Determine the Test Types for each objective.
Now that you have created your table of specifications for your test by aligning your
objectives to Bloom’s taxonomy, it’s time to determine the test types that will accomplish
your testing objectives. For example, knowledge questions can be accomplished easily
through multiple choice questions or matching type exams. If you want to test evaluation
or synthesis of a topic, you will want to create exam type questions or perhaps you will ask
the students to create diagrams and explain their diagrams in their analysis. The important
thing is that the test type should reflect your testing objective.
 Step 5- Polish your terms of specification
After your initial draft of the table of specifications, it’s time to polish it. Make sure that you
have covered in your terms of specification the important topics that you wish to test. The
number of items for your test should be sufficient for the time allotted for the test. You
should seek your academic coordinator and have them comment on your table of
specification. They will be able to give good feedback on how you can improve or modify it.

A prototype table of a periodical test in TLE III-Home Economics subject is shown using the
link below:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/125213887/Table-of-Specs-in-Grade-7-ICT

and for more examples of ToS, please use the link below:
https://depedtambayan.org/new-2017-2018-periodic-test-questions-with-table-of-
specifications/

The ToS guides the teacher in formulating the test. As we can see, the ToS also ensures that
each of the objectives in the hierarchy of educational objectives is well represented in the test. As
such, the resulting test that will be constructed by the teacher will be more or less comprehensive.
Without the ToS, the tendency for the test maker is to focus too much on facts and concepts at the
knowledge level.

For more understanding of the discussion above, the following tutorial videos are
recommended. For this purpose, use the following links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NaPvWNW41s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrO-dYx2BYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrW9p2WziGI
5.2 Constructing a True-False Test
Binomial-choice tests are tests that have only two (2) options such as true or false, right or
wrong, good or better and so on. A student who knows nothing of the content of the examination
would have 50% chance of getting the correct answer by sheer guess work. Although correction-
for-guessing formulas exist, it is best that the, teacher ensures that a true-false item is able to
discriminate properly between those who know and those who are just guessing. A modified true-
false test can offset the effect of guessing by requiring students to explain their answer and to
disregard a correct answer if the explanation is incorrect. Here are some rules of thumb in
constructing true-false items.
Rule 1: Do not give a hint (inadvertently) in the body of the question.

Example: The Philippines gained its independence in 1898 and therefore celebrated its
centennial year in 2000. ______

Obviously, the answer is FALSE because 100 years from 1898 is not 2000 but 1998.

Rule 2: Avoid using the words “always”, “never” “often” and other adverbs that tend to
be either always true or always false.

Example: Christmas always falls on a Sunday because it is a Sabbath day.

Statements that use the word “always” are almost always false. A test-wise student can
easily guess his way through a test like these and get high scores even if he does not know
anything about the test.

Rule 3: Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”. Keep sentences short.

Example: Tests need to be valid, reliable and useful, although, it would require a great amount
of time and effort to ensure that tests possess these test characteristics. _______

Notice that the statement is true. However, we are also not sure which part of the sentence
is deemed true by the student. It is just fortunate that in this case, all parts of the sentence
are true and hence, the entire sentence is true. The following example illustrates what can
go wrong in long sentences:

Example: Tests need to be valid, reliable and useful since it takes very little amount of time,
money and effort to construct tests with these characteristics.

The first part of the sentence is true but the second part is debatable and may, in fact, be
false. Thus, a “true” response is correct and also, a “false” response is correct.

Rule 4. Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or spelling anomaly,
misplaced phrases, etc. A wise student who does not know the subject matter
may detect this strategy and thus get the answer correctly.

Example: True or False. The Principle of our school is Mr. Albert P. Panadero.
 The Principal’s name may actually be correct but since the word is misspelled and the entire
sentence takes a different meaning, the answer would be false! This is an example of a tricky
but utterly useless item.

Rule 5: Avoid quoting verbatim from reference materials or textbooks. This practice
sends the wrong signal to the students that it is necessary to memorize the
textbook word for word and thus, acquisition of higher-level thinking skills is
not given due importance.

Rule 6. Avoid specific determiners or give-away qualifiers. Students quickly learn that
strongly worded statements are more likely to be false than true, for example,
statements with “never” “no” “all” or “always.” Moderately worded statements
are more likely to be true than false. Statements with “many” “often”
“sometimes” “generally” ‘frequently” or “some” should be avoided.

Rule 7. With true or false questions, avoid a grossly disproportionate number of

either true or false statements or even patterns in the occurrence of true and
false statements.

5.3 Multiple Choice Tests

A Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) is one of the most popular assessment methods that
can be used for formative and summative assessments. Here, in response to a question, the
learner is invited to select one correct option from a list of options. It is an effective and efficient
way to assess learning outcomes. Multiple choice test items have several potential advantages:
Versatility, Reliability, and Validity.

Characteristics of MCQs
Multiple choice test items have several potential advantages:

 Versatility: Multiple choice tests assess various levels of learning outcomes, from basic
recall to application, analysis, and evaluation. Because learners are choosing from a set of
potential answers, however, there are obvious limits on what can be tested. For example,
they are not an effective way to test learners’ ability to organize thoughts or articulate
explanations or creative ideas.

 Reliability: Reliability is the degree to which a test consistently measures a learning

outcome. Multiple choice questions provide less scope for guesswork than true/false
questions do, making them a more reliable means of assessment. In fact, we can enhance
the degree of reliability by increasing the number of items focused on a single learning
objective.

 Validity: Validity is the degree to which a test measures the learning outcomes it claims
to offer. Since learners normally answer a multiple-choice question more quickly than an
essay question, tests based on multiple choice mostly focus on a broader representation
of course material.
Anatomy of a Multiple-Choice Question

A multiple-choice item consists of a problem, known as the stem, and a list of suggested
solutions, known as options or alternatives. The alternatives consist of one correct option, which
is the answer, and incorrect or inferior alternatives, known as distractors.

10 Rules of Framing Effective MCQs

Rule 1: Avoid grammatical clues

Grammatical clues make the answer obvious to learners. We must ensure that the question
stem is free from grammatical clues such as ‘a’ or ‘an’.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

A word that modifies an adjective is called A word that modifies an adjective is called
an: a/an:
Adverb Adverb
Adjective Adjective
Verb Verb
Conjunction Conjunction

Rule 2: Keep the alternatives homogeneous.

Heterogeneous content provides clue to the learner on which answer is correct. Alternatives
should be homogenous and shouldn’t provide a clue. Also, it is important to note that the
alternatives have grammar consistent with the question stem, parallel in form, and similar
in length and language.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

Ontario is famous for: Ontario is famous for:
Niagara Falls Niagara Falls
The state with a beaver on its flag Victoria Falls
The largest producer of Apples in Angel Falls
Canada Iguazu Falls
The location of the tallest mountain in
Canada

Rule 3: The stem should be in a question format, NOT incomplete statements.

The stem should either be a question or a partial sentence. This allows the learner to focus
on answering the question rather than holding the partial sentence in working memory and
sequentially completing it with each option.
 Incorrect Question Correct Question
The capital of Indonesia is: Which of the following is the capital of
Jakarta Indonesia?
Bandung Jakarta
Surabaya Bandung
Medan Surabaya
Medan

Rule 4: If using an incomplete statement, avoid beginning with blank space.

The cognitive load on the learner is increased when the stem is constructed with an initial
or blank in- between. So avoid such constructions.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

______________ is a synonym for courtesy. The synonym for courtesy is _____________.
Bow Bow
Honesty Honesty
Politeness Politeness
Tribute Tribute

Rule 5: Alternatives should be mutually exclusive.

Options that overlap confuse learners and can be easily identified as distractors. Also, if the
overlap includes the intended answer, then there will be more than one option that can be
confused as the right answer.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

How long does an annual plant generally How long does an annual plant generally
live? live?
It dies after the first year Only one year
It lives for many years Only two years
It lives for more than one year Only three years
It needs to be replaced each year Several years

Rule 6: All alternatives should be plausible.

The function of incorrect options is to serve as distractors. Options that are implausible
don’t serve as distractors and hence, should not be used.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

Who among the following directed the Who among the following directed the
film “Titanic”? film “Titanic”?
 Vincent van Gosh Steven Spielberg
Neil Gaiman Christopher Nolan
James Cameron James Cameron
Steve Jobs Martin Scorsese

Rule 7: Alternatives should be presented in a logical order

Arranging alternatives logically in an alphabetical or numerical order will help you avoid
cognitive overload and possible confusion.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

In which of these time periods was World In which of these time periods was
War II fought? World War II fought?
1951-1955 1914-1917
1929-1934 1929-1934
1914-1917 1939-1945
1939-1955 1951-1955

Rule 8: Balance the placement of the correct answer

If you have noticed, correct answers are usually at the second or third positions. Many
instructors have a tendency to bury the answers in the middle, instead of placing them as
the first or last option. This practice, however, is quite known to learners. The best method
is to randomize the answers.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

Answer Key Answer Key
1.a, 2.b, 3.c, 4.d, 5.a, 6.b, 7.c, 1.b, 2.d, 3.a, 4.c, 5.b, 6.d, 7.b,
8.d, 9.a, 10.b 8.b, 9.a, 10. c

Rule 9: Avoid the use of specific determiners

When words such as never, always, and only are included in the distractors to make them
false, they serve as clues to alert learners. Instead, if necessary, you can include them in the
beginning of your question stem rather than using them in the options.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

To avoid infection after receiving a To avoid infection after receiving a
puncture wound to the hand, you puncture wound to the hand, you should
should: always:

a. Always go to the immunization a. Go to the immunization center to

center to receive a tetanus shot receive a tetanus shot

b. Be treated with an antibiotic b. Be treated with an antibiotic if the

only if the wound is painful wound is painful
 c. Ensure that no foreign object c. Ensure that no foreign object has
has been left in the wound been left in the wound

d. Never wipe the wound with d. Wipe the wound with alcohol
alcohol unless it is still bleeding unless it is still bleeding

Rule 10: Keep the alternatives similar in length

An option in a multiple-choice question that is noticeably longer or shorter than the others
has a greater chance of being assumed to be the correct answer. Hence, to avoid such
choices without good reason, always keep your options similar in length.

Incorrect Question Correct Question

Which of the following is the best Which of the following is the best
indication of high morale in a supervisor indication of high morale in a
unit? supervisor unit?

a. Employees are rarely required to a. Employees are rarely required to

work overtime work overtime

b. Employees are willing to give b. Employees willingly give first

first priority to group objectives, priority to group objectives
subordinating any personal desires
they may have c. The supervisor enjoys staying
late to plan for the next day
c. The supervisor enjoys staying
late to plan for the next day d. Unit members give expensive
birthday
d. The unit members give expensive
birthday presents to each other

Learners prefer multiple choice questions over other assessment methods because it is
simple and easy to score. By following the abovementioned rules, you can design objective and
reliable multiple-choice questions to evaluate learning.

5.4 Rules in Constructing Matching Type and Completion Type of Test

The matching type items may be considered as modified multiple-choice type items where the
choices progressively reduce as one successfully matches the items on the left with the items on the
right.
 Example: Match the items in column A with the items in column B.

A B
_________1. Magellan a. First President of the Republic
_________2. Mabini b. National Hero
_________3. Rizal c. Discovered the Philippines
_________4. Lapu-Lapu d. Brain of Katipunan
_________5. Aguinaldo e. The great painter
f. Defended Limasawa island

Normally, column B will contain more items than column A to prevent guessing on the part
of the students. Matching type items, unfortunately, often test lower order thinking skills
(knowledge level) and are unable to test higher order thinking skills such as application and
judgement skills.

A variant of the matching type items is the data sufficiency and comparison type of test
illustrated below:

Example: Write L if the item on the left is greater than the item on the right; O if the item on
the left is less than the item on the right; V if the item on the left equals the item on
the right and E if the relationship cannot be determined.

A B
1. Square root of 9 ______ a. -3
2. Square root of 25 ______ b. 615
3. 36 inches ______ c. 3 meters
4. 4 feet ______ d. 48 inches
5. 1 kilogram ______ e. 1 pound

The data sufficiency test above can, if properly constructed, test higher-order thinking skills.
Each item goes beyond simple recall of facts and, in fact, requires the students to make decisions.

Best Practices For Constructing Matching Test Questions

 Keep questions short and straightforward. Avoid unnecessary words.

 Do not get carried away adding additional items. Having 10-12 items between both
columns (5-6 “question - answer” pairs) is the sweet spot.
 It is best to arrange the items in the left column according to some criterion
(alphabetically, chronologically, etc).
 Make sure that no items in the right column can be matched to more than one item in
the left one. However, having an item in the left column serves as the key for more than
one item in the right column is all right.
 Avoid positioning matching test questions in such a way that the list is separated in two
by a page break. Learners should not have to go back and forth trying to match
questions on one page to answers on the other.
  When constructing answers, try to keep them interconnected by theme and the manner
of presentation. You can find examples of a correctly and incorrectly constructed
matching questions below.
Incorrect

A B
1. The year of the New York’s founding 4 July 1776
2. The capital of the United States. B. George Washington
3. First president of the United States. C. 1653
4. The date the declaration of D. United States dollar
independence was signed.
5. The name of the United States E. Washington
currency.

Correct

A B
1. The largest planet in the Solar System. A. Mercury
2. The planet humans first landed on. B. Neptune
3. The farthest planet from Earth. C. The Moon
4. The planet with an observable ring system D. Jupiter
5. The smallest planet in the Solar System. E. Saturn

Matching Test Questions With Keylists

There is a distinct variety of matching questions that makes use of so-called keylists. Such
questions feature a relatively short list of key elements (3-4) and a much larger one containing
possible answers (10-12). Learners are asked to match every answer from the second column to
one of the keys in the first. Below is an example of a matching question with keylist.

A B
1. Google A. Which of the companies on the list derives
its profit primarily from context advertising?
2. Microsoft B. Which of the companies on the list first
produced fonts for an operating system?
3. Apple C. Which of the companies on the list first
proposed using a computer mouse?
D. Which of the companies on the list first
introduced a graphical user interface in their
operating system?
E. Which of the companies on the list first
created a browser-based cloud operating
system?
Classification Questions

These are very similar to matching questions with keylists, the only difference being that the
learners are asked to sort answers from the second column into groups belonging to separate
classes or categories specified in the first column. Classification questions consist of a description of
the task the learner has to perform, the list of elements to be sorted, and the list of categories they
have to be sorted into. Below is an example of a classification question.

Sort the following animals according to the species they belong to:

A B
1. Mammals A. Whale
2. Birds B. Duck
3. Fish C. Dolphin
D. Pelican
E. Salamander

5.5 Writing Effective Completion Questions

Another useful device for testing lower-order thinking skills is the supply type of tests. Like
the multiple-choice test, the items in this kind of test consist of a stem and a blank where the
students would write the correct answer.

Example: The study of life and living organisms is called ____________.

Supply type tests depend heavily on the way that the stems are constructed. These tests
allow for one and only one answer and, hence, often test only the students’ knowledge. It is,
however, possible to construct supply type of tests that will test higher order thinking as the
following example shows:

Example: Write an appropriate synonym for each of the following. Each blank corresponds
to a letter:
Metamorphose: _ _ _ _ _ _
Flourish: _ _ _ _

The appropriate synonym for the first is CHANGE with six (6) letters while the
appropriate synonym for the second is GROW with four (4) letters. Notice that these
questions require not only mere recall of words but also understanding of these words.

Completion items require a word, short phrase, number, or symbol response. They are
sometimes called fill-in-the-blank questions. Sometimes a word bank accompanies a set of short-
answer exercises, especially for younger children or where recognition (not production) of the
word is important and spelling is not. Use completion items especially when recall of a specific
word or term is important for the learning goal. Write effective completion items by following
the guidelines below.

 Write each item to tap into the content and kind of thinking in important learning
outcomes. Make sure the alignment between the item and the learning outcome is
 strong. For example, consider the learning outcome, “Students will identify three-
dimensional geometric shapes.” An effective item on a geometry test might be, “What
shape is a basketball? ________.” To answer correctly with “sphere,” the student needs to
know what a basketball is (safe to assume for most students), to recall its shape, and to
know that shape is a sphere. The item matches the outcome in both content (i.e., a
sphere is a three-dimensional geometric shape) and level of thinking (i.e., recall).

Effective items will not confound relevant content and thinking skills with other
knowledge or skills not required for the outcome. For example, the question, “What
shape is Spaceship Earth at Epcot? ________” confounds travel experience (or interest in
theme parks) with geometry knowledge. To answer correctly, the student would need
to know what the Spaceship Earth building looked like and to recognize the shape of a
sphere. A student might get this answer wrong not because he or she couldn’t identify a
sphere, but because he or she didn’t know what Spaceship Earth was.

 Design items so that students must supply an important word or concept. Write in
a question format if possible. Direct questions are more likely to have unambiguous
answers than sentences with blanks in them. Design the items so that the particular
important word or phrase that is required would be clear to students who know the
material. For example, the completion item, “Iambic pentameter consists of _______.” has
several reasonable answers: ten syllables, five feet, short/long patterns, and so on. A
clearer, better item is a direct question: “How many syllables are in one line of iambic
pentameter? __________.”

 Insert a blank where an answer is expected. If the item is a direct question, a blank
should be placed after the question. If the item is a sentence that leaves out a key word
or idea, a blank that serves as a placeholder for that item should be included and it
should come toward the end of the sentence. When the missing element is placed near
the end of the sentence, students can read through the sentence once and gather
enough context to answer without having to backtrack and read the sentence again. For
example, “What is the most common gas in the earth’s atmosphere? _______” and “The
most common gas in the earth’s atmosphere is ________.” are good items because
students will recognize that they must identify earth’s most common gas on the first
read-through before they come to the blank. In contrast, “________ is the most common
gas in the earth’s atmosphere” is less effective, because it requires students to read to
the end of the sentence to recognize that the blank should be filled with the name of
earth’s most common gas.

 Avoid grammatical or other clues. Clues from grammar or from the length of the line
confound other kinds of reasoning with the knowledge or skill the item is intended to
assess. In a set of completion items, keep all blanks the same length so that students
don’t infer that some answers are long and others are short. In addition, avoid grammar
clues within the item. For example, the item “A person who draws the pictures for a book
is called an _______.” suggests that the correct answer begins with a vowel sound.
Grammar clues can be avoided by rephrasing items as direct questions (e.g., “What is a
person who draws the pictures for a book called? _______”) or by providing options that
eliminate the grammatical clue (e.g., “A person who draws the pictures for a book is
called a(n) _______.”
5.6 Rules in Constructing Essay Type Tests

Essays, classified as non-objective tests, allow for the assessment of higher-order thinking
skills. Such tests require students to organize their thoughts on a subject matter in coherent
sentences in order to inform an audience. In essay tests, students are required to write one or more
paragraphs on a specific topic.

Essay questions can be used to measure the attainment of a variety of objectives. Stecklein
(1955) has listed 14 types of abilities that can be measured by essay items:

 Comparisons between two or more things

 The development and defense of an opinion
 Questions of cause and effect
 Explanations of meanings
 Summarizing of information in a designated area
 Analysis
 Knowledge of relationships
 Illustrations of rules, principles, procedures, and applications
 Applications of rules, laws, and principles to new situations
 Criticisms of the adequacy, relevance, or correctness of a concept, idea, or information
 Formulation of new questions and problems
 Reorganization of facts
 Discriminations between objects, concepts, or events
 Inferential thinking

General Types of Essay Items

There are two types of essay items: extended response and restricted response.

An extended response essay item is one that allows for an in-depth sampling of a student’s
knowledge, thinking processes, and problem-solving behavior relative to a specific topic. The open-
ended nature of the task posed by an instruction such as “discuss essay and objective tests” is
challenging to a student. In order to answer this question correctly, the student has to recall specific
information and organize, evaluate, and write an intelligible composition. The potential ambiguity
of an essay task is probably the single most important contributor to unreliability. In addition, the
more extensive the responses required and the fewer questions a teacher may ask would definitely
result to lower content validity of the test.

Examples:

1. Describe the character of hamlet.

2. Global warming is next step to disaster. Explain.

On the other hand, a restricted response essay item is one where the examinee is required
to provide limited response based on a specified criterion for answering the question. It follows,
therefore, that a more restricted response essay item is, in general, preferable. An instruction such
as “discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of essay test with respect to (1) reliability,
(2) objectivity, (3) content validity, and (4) usability” presents a better defined task more likely to
lend itself to reliable scoring and yet allows examinees sufficient opportunity r freedom to organize
and express their ideas creatively.
Examples:

1. Write the life sketch of mahatma Gandhi in 100 words.

2. State any five definition of education.

Following are examples of essay questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives.

A. Knowledge:
Explain how Egypt came to be called the gift of the Nile.

B. Comprehension
What is meant when the person says, “I had just crossed the bridge”?

C. Application
Give at least three examples of how the law of supply operates in our economy today.

D. Analysis
Explain the causes and effects of the People’s Power Revolution on the political and social
life of the Filipino people.

E. Synthesis
Describe the origin and significance of the celebration of Christmas the world over.

Scoring Essay Tests

The best objective way of grading/scoring an essay is to use a rubric. Below is a sample of a
simplified rubric for an essay type test.

No Needs
Adequate Quality Exemplary
Answer Improvement
cccc
6 pts 8 pts 10 pts
0 pts 4 pts

Content Did not Answers are Answers are Answers are Answers are
10 pts answer partial or not accurate and comprehensive,
question. incomplete. comprehensive complete. accurate and
Key points are or completely Key points complete. Key
not clear. stated. Key are stated ideas are
Question not points are and clearly stated,
adequately addressed, but supported. explained, and
answered. not well well supported.
supported.

Organization Did not Organization Inadequate Organization Well organized,

 10 pts answer and structure organization or is mostly coherently
question. detract from development. clear and developed, and
(Answers are the answer. Structure of the easy to easy to follow.
clearly thought answer is not follow.
out and easy to follow.
articulated.)

Writing Did not Displays over Displays three Displays one Displays no
Conventions answer five errors in to five errors in to three errors in
10 pts question. spelling, spelling, errors in spelling,
punctuation, punctuation, spelling, punctuation,
(Spelling, grammar, and grammar, and punctuation, grammar, and
punctuation, sentence sentence grammar, sentence
grammar, and structure. structure. and sentence structure.
complete structure.
sentences.)

Learning Resources:
1. Module
2. Schoology/Moodle
3. Messenger

References:
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