Stages in test construction: Planning, Preparing, Reviewing, Revising Test Items

       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. The first step includes planning, preparing, reviewing, and revising test items

    II.            SUMMARY OF CONTENT

1.      Planning

The first step in constructing a test is to determine the content, the scope of the test, as well as the manner in which test items should be developed. This process is referred to as “planning a test”. In the planning stage, one should determine the materials upon which test items are to be based. For example, to construct a grammar test, all grammatical elements, that could be potentially included in the test, should be listed.

Then, regarding the extent and importance of each element, the number of items devoted to each particular element should be determined. Finally, the form of the items, whether multiple-choice, true/false, etc., must be decided on.

2.      Preparing Test Items

Preparing test items is a very delicate activity that requires a great deal of care and expertise. It is a dangerously oversimplified belief that every teacher is able to write reasonably acceptable items. Of course, informal tests, or tests of which the scores do not have determining influence upon the examinees’ career, may be even prepared by classroom teachers. However, for preparing formal tests, of which the results would be of critical significance, the experts in the field should be called upon for help.

3.      Reviewing Test Items

It is a generally accepted principle that test construction is a collaborative activity. An individual, no matter how expert he may be, is potentially subject to making mistakes. Therefore, to minimize the pitfalls, test items should be reviewed by a team of experts. These experts would critically examine the correspondence between test content and the table of specifications. They would also consider the form, level of difficulty, and the appropriateness of the items. After reviewing the items, the experts would offer some subjective comments for modifications of these items. After the test developer made necessary modifications, the first draft of the test would be ready to go under the scrutiny of the pre-testing step.

4.      Revising Test Items

This is the step where the test items are revised before testing in the pre-testing step. In this step, the item which has already been corrected or reviewed, are re-write. So that, in this step, the test item is called as semi final form.

 III.            CONCLUSION

In the first step in constructing test, there are four points that we have to do before pre-test the language test. This step is really important because it will influence the next steps after pre-test. Those are the conclusion of the summary related to the topic.

REFERENCES

Hughes, Arthur. (1983). Testing for Language Teachers. UK: Cambridge University Press.