Stages in test construction: Assembling and Reproducing Final Form

Stages in test construction: Assembling and Reproducing Final Form

       I.            INTRODUCTION

Today many institutions and people are demanded to construct the test by themselves. Especially as a teacher, we need to know the steps of test construction. Here is the summary of the steps in constructing test. This is the last step in constructing the test before testing it to the tester, and we get the result of test then. This step includes assembling and reproducing final form.

    II.            SUMMARY OF CONTENT

Assembling the test for use includes reviewing and editing the items, arranging the item in logical order and preparing clear directions after the test has been administered and scored, item analysis can help determine the effectiveness and criterion-referenced test.

Reviewing and Editing the Item

Tasks may be re-ordered to take account of their difficulty. Usually the easiest questions are presented first. This is to encourage candidates to proceed through the test and to ensure that the weaker candidates do not become discouraged before providing adequate evidence of their achievements and skills. Minor changes to items may have to be made for layout reasons (for example, to keep all of an item on one page of the test, or to avoid obvious Patterns in the list of correct answers). Items representing a single cell within a test specification should vary in item content and difficulty. The position of the correct option in multiple-choice items (A, B, C, D or E) should also vary and each position should be used to a similar extent. Some questions may have minor changes to wording, others may be replaced. The final test should be consistent with the test blueprint. The item review procedures described above are repeated (particularly important where stimulus material must be associated with more than one question) and each reviewer should work independently through the proposed test and provide a ‘correct’ answer for each question. This enables the test constructor’s (new) list of correct answers to be checked.

Preparing the Direction

At the beginning of this module it was asserted that the assessment of student learning provides evidence so that sound educational decisions can be made. This evidence should help us to evaluate (or judge the merit of) a teaching programmed or we may use the evidence to make statements about student competence or to make decisions about the next aspect of teaching for particular students. Clearly the quality of the evidence is a critical factor in making sensible decisions.

Reproducing the test

The procedures for test construction described in this module have developed over many years of practical work in the development of tests and similar instruments. Some of the advice has arisen from research into test analysis and some advice has been derived from the practical experience of large numbers of research and development staff working at various agencies around the world. Improving the quality of the evidence is not an easy task. And reading a book about the procedures will not suffice – because improving one’s skills as a test constructor requires working on the construction of tests as part of a test construction team.

Preparation of final forms of a test is not the end of the work. The data gathered from the use of final versions should be monitored as a quality control check on their performance. Such analyses can also be used to fix a standard by which the performance of future candidates may be compared. It is important to do this as candidates in one year may vary in quality from those in another year.

 III.            CONCLUSION

This is the last step in constructing the test before testing it to the tester, and we get the result of test then. This step includes assembling and reproducing final form.  Those are the conclusion of the summary related to the topic.