La Carlota City College/College of Education Assessment in Learning 1

MODULE 3
OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE TESTS
Paper-and-pencil tests are often made up of essay and objective items. An essay test measures
higher-order thinking, including analysis, synthesis and evaluation. It may require short answers such
as a sentence or two, or extended responses which may involve paragraphs.

- Is the traditional type of examination in which the subject or examinee is made to discuss, enumerate,
compare, state, explain, analyze, or criticize (Good as cited by Calderon & Gonzales, 1993).

Classification of Essay Examinations or Questions

According to Brevity of Responses
1. Simple recall question – demands a short response, a sentence or two, to a question which
usually begins with what, who, where and when. Ex. What are the exports of the Philippines?
2. Short-answer question – usually begins with define, identify, list down, fins, or state.
Ex. Identify the three branches of government which are supposed to be coequal.
3. Discussion type – usually asks a question starting with explain, describe, interpret, compare,
contrast, outline. Ex. Explain the Law of Effect.

According to the Scope of Responses

1. Unrestricted or uncontrolled type – in this type, students have a wider freedom of organizing
their ideas in the way they want. Ex. Discuss the economic problems of the country.
2. Restricted or controlled type – in this type, the students is limited in organizing his response.
There are guides in making a response. Ex. Give and discuss the causes of the Philippine
Revolution staring with the remote causes and followed by the immediate ones.
Advantages of Essay Examinations

1. It measures the higher levels of knowledge

2. It helps students organize their thoughts and ideas logically
3. It is easy to prepare
4. It can be se in any subject
5. It is harder to cheat in an easy test

Disadvantages of Essay Examinations

1. It is usually not well prepared

2. There is difficulty of giving the right weight to its question
3. Its usability is slow
4. The validity and reliability of easy test are low

Types of Essay Examination Questions

1. Enumeration of things, concrete or abstract.

Ex. What are the most developed countries of Asia?
2. Description of things, concrete or abstract.
Ex. Describe life in the Philippines during the 1890’s.
3. Comparison based on similarities and differences.
Ex. Discuss the contrasts between America and Russia.
4. Explanation or exposition.
Ex. Explain and illustrate the Archimedes Principle.
5. Development of a topic, a theme, a subject.
Ex. Develop a topic “Education: A Key to Progress.”
6. Argument for or against.
Ex. Why are you against the National College Entrance Examination?
7. Analysis.
Ex. Analyze the economic policies of the government
8. Summary.
Ex. Summarize the lecture on evaluation
 9. Evaluation or criticism.
Ex. Criticize the infrastructure program of the government
10. Outline.
Ex. Outline the steps in making soap
11. Classification.
Ex. Make a scientific classification of animals
12. Reorganization of facts or data.
Ex. Reorganize the account of the death of Andres Bonifacio according to recently
discovered data about the case.
13. Narration.
Ex. Narrate the events that led to the proclamation of martial law.

Tips in Grading Essays

1. Be clear about your expectations by preparing a rubric for each essay.
2. Discuss with students the components that will be assessed and the percentages: for example,
comprehensiveness- 40%, accuracy, 40%, clarity of expression – 20%.

A. Identify the thesis statement. Is the thesis statement clear? Do you understand it?
B. Supporting evidence.
1. Identify the topic sentence for each paragraph.
2. Does each paragraph contain just one idea or concept?
3. Does the author use evidence to support his/her argument?
4. Has the author provided citations for his/her evidence?
C. Examine the paper’s format and grammar.
1. Does the paper have an introduction, body, and conclusion’

OBJECTIVE EXAMINATIONS

- Generally call for single words, phrases, numbers, letters, and other symbols as responses to
items.

Advantages of Objective Examinations

The principal advantage of the objective examination over the essay examination is the fact
that the validity and reliability of the former are very much higher than that of the latter. The
reasons for this are the following:
1. The sampling of the objective examination is more representative and so measurement is
more extensive. This is so because more items are included in the test.
2. Handicaps such as poor vocabulary, poor handwriting, poor spelling, poor grammar and the
like do not adversely affect the ability to make a reply.
3. Scoring is not subjective because the responses are single words, phrases, numbers, letters,
and other symbols with definite value points and hence, the personal element of the scorer is
removed.
4. The objective test is better prepared than the essay test because there are principles to be
applied in its construction.

Disadvantages of Objective Examinations

1. It is hard to prepare. There are certain principles to be applied in its construction.
2. Generally, it measures factual knowledge only.
3. It does not help in or encourage the development of the ability of the students to organize and
express their ideas.
4. It encourages memory work even without understanding.
5. There are certain subjects or courses that are not amenable to objective examination.
Examples are law and sociology.
6. It is easier to cheat in an objective examination than in essay examination.

CLASSIFICATION OF OBJECTIVE TESTS

1. Recall Types – the answers are supplied by the examinees.
a. Simple recall
b. Completion or fill-in the blanks
c. Identification
 d. Labeling
e. Enumeration
2. Recognition Types – responses are chosen from given options.
a. Alternative response
b. Multiple choice
c. Scaled multiple choice
d. Multiple response
e. Matching
3. Rearrangement of items – jumbled pictures or words are to be rearranged in some desirable
way.
a. Rearrangement of symbols, pictures, etc.
b. Rearrangement of words, phrases, or sentences

Simple Recall – each item appears as a direct question, a stimulus word or phrase, or a specified
direction. The response is recalled rather than selected from a list given by the teacher.

Example:
1. When was Philippine independence granted by America?
2. Give the formula for finding the area of a circle.
3. Who was the first President of the Philippine Senate?

Identification Test – is a form of completion test in which a term is defined, described, explained, or
indicated by a picture, diagram, or a concrete object and the term referred to is supplied by the pupil
or student.

Rules for Construction:

1. The definition, description, or explanation of the term may be given by means of a phrase or
incomplete statement if it is not indicated by a picture, diagram or complete object.
Examples:
Identify the following:
__________1. The hero of the battle of Mactan.
__________ 2. The longest Filipino revolt.

2. The statement should be so phrased that there is only one response.

Labeling Test – the name of parts of a diagram, map, drawing, or picture are to be indicated.

Rules for Construction:

1. Make the diagram, map, drawing, or picture to be labelled very clear and recognizable
especially the parts to be labelled.
2. The parts to be labeled should be indicated by arrows so that the labels can be written in
vertical column in a definite place and not on the face of the diagram, map, drawing, or picture.
3. Labeling can be a matching type of test if the labels with some extras are given.

Example: Label the circle by writing after the number the letter symbol of the word that refers to the
part indicated by the arrow:
a. Center b. Tangent c. Diameter d. Arc e. Chord
f. diagonal g. Circumference h. Radius i. Semicircle

Enumeration – is a type of completion test in which there are two or more responses to an item.

Examples: Enumerate the following:

a) The five principal exports of the Philippines
b) The eight provinces that revolted against Spain
Alternative Response Test - is made up of items each of which admit only one of only two
possible responses. Varieties of this test are the true-false test, yes-no test, right-wrong test, + and
– sign test and the like. The most popular is the true-false test.

Multiple-Choice Test Items

Parts of a Multiple-Choice Test Items

Stem- the text of the question
Options-the choices provided after the stem
The key-the correct answer in the list of options
Distracters-the incorrect answers in the list of options

Tips on Writing Multiple-Choice Test Items

1. Keep the language at the students’ level using good grammatical form.
2. Express as much of the substance of the item as possible in the stem.
3. Make certain that one option is clearly the best answer.
4. Make sure that each option is plausible.
5. Keep the options in an item consistent in type and length.
6. Avoid specific determiner words and absolutes such as every, none, always, and never.
7. Avoid using a double negative or a word used both in the stem and in the response.
8. Do not use all of the above or none of the above as a distracter.
9. Make the correct responses occur in random order. They should not follow a pattern.
10. Present four or more options to minimize the chance of guessing.
(Wilen, Ishler, Hutchison & Kindsvatter, 2000)

Tips on Writing True-False Items

1. Every item should be wholly true or wholly false.
2. Each item must be short and significant.
3. Whenever possible, avoid such items as generally, usually, seldom, much, little, few, small, and
large.
4. Avoid the used of absolute modifier such as all, none, no, always, never, nothing, only, and
alone.
5. Avoid trivia.
6. Avoid using double negative.
7. The correct responses should not follow the pattern.

Tips on Writing Matching Items

1. Make sure all items concern one topic.
2. Include more possible answers than questions or state that some answers may be used more
than once.
3. Arrange the options in some logical order such as chronological or alphabetical.
4. State clearly in the direction the properties that are to be matched
5. The number of items in the stimulus column should be about ten.

(Examples: (1) Match the scientist to his or her famous invention,

(2) Match the definition to the term being defined)
 Tips on Writing Completion Items
1. Write an item that can be completed with a single word or a short phrase.
2. Be sure that only one word or phrase can correctly complete the sentence.
3. Make all blanks the same length.
4. Do not give grammatical clues.
5. Do not put more than two blanks in any item.
6. Omit only words that are essential to the meaning of the statement or sentence.

Scaled Multiple Choice Test – is a multiple choice type of test in which the chosen option is taken
from a list of orderable categories, degrees, or gradations. Generally, this test is used to discover
tastes and preferences, values, attitudes, appreciations, habits, etc. Usually, there are three or five
options.

Rules for Construction:

1. Use options that are orderable with a fixed or the same interval from one extreme to the other,
that is, from the highest degree to the lowest degree.

Examples: a. Do you love your country?

1.Very much 2. Much 3. Fairly much 4. Not much 5. Not at all

b. How often do you study your lessons?

1.Very often 2. Often 3. Fairly often 4. Not often 5. Not at all

2. When the examinee is given a chance to select an option that expresses doubt or uncertainty,
the option expressing doubt or uncertainty should be placed in the middle or center of the
opposing reactions.

Examples:
1. If you take an important test and cheating is the only way to pass it, do you try to cheat?
a. Yes b. Uncertain c. No
2. Do you agree that the presidential form of government is better for the Philippines than the
parliamentary form?
a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Uncertain d. Disagree e. Strongly Disagree

Multiple Response Test – is very similar to the multiple choice test. The only difference is that in the
multiple choice test there is only one correct response but in the multiple response test there are two
or more correct answers. The rules for the multiple choice test also apply to the multiple response
test except that there should be more options and there are more than one correct options.

Examples: The recall types of test are

_______ a. Completion test _______ e. Enumeration test
_______ b. Identification test _______ f. Matching test
_______ c. Alternative response test _______ g. Multiple response test
_______ d. Labeling test
The correct responses are a, b, d, and e.

Rearrangement Type – consists of multiple-option item where it requires a chronological, logical or

ran order.

Sample test item of Rearrangement Type

Direction: Below are sentences. Arrange them in order. Choose the letter only and write your answer
at the right column blank.
1. a) dabcef b. Dcabfe c) dabecf d) dbacfe 1. _ C___
a. They hired a bus in going to Boracay.
b. They left at 6:00 o’clock in the morning in Iloilo City.
c. They stayed overnight in Boracay.
d. One day, the teacher education students of Saint Paul University Iloilo had an educational
tour at the Boracay Beach Resort.
e. They arrived in Boracay at 10:00 A.M.
f. The following day, they went home.
Analogy – is a type of test which is made up of items consisting of a pair of words related to each
other. It is designed to
measure the ability of the examinee to observe the relationship of the first word to the second
word.

There are 15 kinds of relationship of analogy test. These are as follows:

1. Purpose 6. Object to Action 11. Characteristics
2. Cause and effect 7. Synonym 12. Sequence
3. Part-Whole 8. Antonym 13. Grammatical
4. Part-Part 9. Place 14. Numerical
5. Action to Object 10. Degree 15. Association

1 . Purpose Relationship
1.1 SHOE is to SHOELACE as DOOR is to
a. Threshold b. Key c. Transom d. Hinge*
1.2 TASTE is to TONGUE as TOUCH is to
a. Finger* b. Skin c. Feel d. Feet

2. Cause and Effect Relationship

2.1 NOISE is to DISTRACTING as HARMONY is to
a. Orchestrated b. Sound c. Pleasing* d. Harmful
2.2 SMOKE is to FIRE as WATER is to
a. H2O b. Rain* c. Cloud d. Sky

3. Part-Whole Relationship
SLICE is to LOAF as ISLAND is to
a. Archipelago* b. Peninsula c. Land d. Ocean

4. Part-Part Relationship
HAND is to ELBOW as FEET is to
a. Leg b. Toe c. Muscle d. Knee*

5. Action to Object Relationship

OBEY is to CHILDREN as COMMAND is to
a. Teachers b. Principals c. Parents* d. Armies

6. Object to Action Relationship

EGG is to BOIL as POTATO is to
a. Hash b. Mash * c. Slice d. Slash

7. Synonym Relationship
DIG: ESCAVATE : KILL:_________
a. Slay* b. Convict c. Avenge d. Try

8. Antonym Relationship
FLY: SPIDER : MOUSE:_________
a. Rodent b. Rat c. Animal d. Cat*

9. Place Relationship
WATER: AQUEDUCT : BLOOD: __________
a. Corpuscle b. Body c. Vein* d. Plasma
10. Degree Relationship
POSSIBLE: PROBABLE : HOPE: __________
a. Resent b. Expect* c. Prove d. Deceive

11. Characteristic Relationship

RICH: WEALTH : WISE: __________
a. Knowledge* b. Save c. Divulge d. Teach
12. Sequence Relationship
12.1 SUN DAY: TUESDAY : THURSDAY: ___________
a. Wednesday b. Friday c. Monday d. Saturday*

12.2 ABC: GIJ : QRS: _________

a. TUW b. TXY c. TWY* d. TWX

12.3 JANUARY: APRIL : JUNE:___________

a. October b. September* c. November d. August

13. Grammatical Relationship

ANGRY: ANGRILY : BEAUTY: __________
a. Pretty b. Beautifully* c. Nice d.
Beauty

14. Numerical Relationship

14.1 024: 135 : 6810:__________
a. 111317 b. 111517 c. 111315* d. 111519

14.2 123: 579 : 678:__________

a. 101112 b. 101113 c. 101314 d. 101214*

14.3 345: 71014 : 161718:_________

a. 202326* b. 202427 c. 202225 d. 202528

15. Association Relationship

15.1 BULLET: LEAD : MESSSAGE: __________
a. Information* b. Barber c. Command d. Cartridge
15.2 ROMANCE: HEART : RIBBON:__________
a. Horse b. Lace c. Baloney d. Gift*

Suggestions for Construction of Analogy Type of Test

1. The relationship of the first pair of words is equal to the relationship of the second.
2. Distractors or incorrect responses must be plausible or closely related to the correct answer to
attract the examinees to the incorrect response. The process of obtaining the correct answer
is by logical elimination.
3. All options must be constructed in parallel language.
4. All options must be grammatically consistent.
5. Four or more options in each item must be included to minimize guessing. If using three
options, correction formula (right minus one-half wrong or R – W/2) is applied.
6. Only homogeneous relationship must be included in each item. For instance, if sequence
relationship is used in the first pair, the second pair is also in sequence relationship.

PerformanceTask 5

Give at least 2 examples in each type of essay examination question based on the field of
specialization.

1. Enumeration of things, concrete or abstract.

1.
2.
2. Description of things, concrete or abstract.
1.
2.
3. Comparison based on similarities and differences.
1.
2.
4. Explanation or exposition.
1.
2.
5. Development of a topic, a theme, a subject.
1.
2.
6. Argument for or against.
1.
2.
7. Analysis.
1.
2.
8. Summary.
1.
2.
9. Evaluation or criticism.
1.
2.
10. Outline.
1.
2.
11. Classification.
1.
2.
12. Reorganization of facts or data.
1.
2.
13. Narration.
1.
2.