Question- How can a good annual achievement test be prepared?

Ans.

In order to design a good question paper to evaluate the achievement of students with respect to a variety of specific learning outcomes, different test items may be included that are relevant to the specific learning objectives. The first step includes developing a design or framework. In order to develop a balanced framework, the necessary steps to be taken are :

(i) Analyse the course content into different content units and decide upon the weightage to be given to each in the test.

(ii) Decide the weightage to be given to different objectives being tested.

(iii) Decide the weightage to be given to different forms of questions to be used in preparing a question paper.

(iv) Decide the weightage to be given to time and marks for different forms of questions.

(v) Decide the weightage to be given to the difficulty level in the test.

The second step is to prepare the blueprint which reflects the distribution of various types of questions to be set on different content units testing particular objectives such as knowledge, understanding, application, skill etc. These can be tested using essay type, short answer type as well as objective type items. The weightage to be given to different objectives is to be designed and thereafter the scoring key is to be prepared in order to maintain the objectivity and validity of test. Scoring key is to be designed keeping in mind the types of questions asked.

Achievement tests are usually used at the end of term/year as a part of summative assessment. Care should be taken that summative assessments and unit tests have adequate contribution to overall assessment of the students.

...Prev | Next...