PART 4

• Types of Objective Tests  

  • We are concerned with developing objective tests for assessing  the attainment of educational objectives based on Bloom’s  taxonomy in this chapter. For this purpose, we restrict our  attention to the following types of paper-and-pencil tests: (a)  true-false items, (b) multiple choice items, (c) matching items, (d)  enumeration, (e) completion and (f) essays.
• • Development of paper-and-pencil tests requires careful planning and  expertise in terms of actual test construction. The more seasoned  teachers can produce true-false items that can test even higher order  thinking skills and not just rote memory learning. Essays are easier to  construct than the other types of objective tests but the difficulty  with which paper-and-pencil tests grades are derived from essay  examinations often discourage teachers from using this particular  form of examination in actual practice.
• Planning a Test and Construction of Table of  Specifications (TOS)  

  *The important steps in planning for a test are:

   1. Identifying test objectives/lesson outcomes

  2. Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared  

  3. Preparing a Table of Specifications (TOS)  

  4. 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. For example, we want to  construct a test on the topic

  “Subject-Verb Agreement in English”  for a Grade V class.
• The following are typical objectives:  

   

  Knowledge/Remembering. The students must be able to identify the subject and verb in a given sentence.  

   

  Comprehension/Understanding. The students must be able to  determine the appropriate form of the verb to be used given the  subject of a sentence.
• Application/Applying. The students must be able to write  sentences observing rules on subject-verb agreement.

  Analysis/Analyzing. The students must be able to break down a  given sentence into its subject and predicate.  
• Evaluation/Evaluating. The students must be able to evaluate  whether or not a sentence observes rules on subject-verb  agreement.  

  Synthesis/Creating. The students must be able to formulate rules  to be followed regarding subject-verb agreement.
• Deciding on the type of objective test.

   The test objectives  guide the kind of objective tests that will be designed and  constructed by the teacher. For instance, for the first four (4)  levels, we may want to construct a multiple-choice type of test  while for application and judgment, we may opt to give an essay  test or a modified essay test.
• A Table of  Specifications or TOS is a test map that guides the teacher in  constructing a test. The TOS ensures that there is a balance  between items that test lower level thinking skills and those which  test higher order thinking skills (all alternatively, a balance  between easy and difficult items) in the test.
• The simplest TOS  consists of four (4) columns:

  (a) level of objective to be tested,

  (b)  statement of objective,

  (c) item numbers where such an objective  is being tested, and

  (d) number of items and percentage out of the  total for that particular objective.
•  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. __________
• • Rule 2. Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often”, and  other words that tend to be either always true or always false.  

   

  Example: Christmas always falls on 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:
• • 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: The Raven was written by Edgar Allen Poe.  

   

  •  Allen is misspelled and 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  that  are  moderately  worded  use  “many,  “often’,  “sometimes”, “generally”, “frequently”, or “some” usually  should be avoided.

   

    Example: Executives usually suffer from hyperacidity.  

   

  • The statement tends to be correct. The word “usually”  leads to the answer.
• • 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.

   

   • For ease or correction, teachers sometimes create a pattern of  True or False answers. Students will sense it and may arrive at a  correct answer not because he/she really knows the answer but  because he/she senses  the pattern.
• Multiple Choice Tests  

  • A generalization of the true-false test, the multiple choice type of  test offers the students with more than two (2) options per item  to choose from.
• Each item in a multiple choice test consists of  two parts:

  (a) the stem, and

  (b) the options. In the set of options,  there is a “correct” or “best” option while all the others are  considered “distracters”.