Measurement and Evaluation in Education (PDE 105)

UNIT FOUR: BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEST

CONSTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION
This unit is a very important one. You need to know how to construct different kinds of tests.
Indeed, tests are not just designed casually or in a haphazard manner. There are rules and
regulations guiding this activity. The unit gives you basic principles to follow when
constructing tests. Before you study this unit, quickly revise the previous unit on
characteristics of good tests.

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
a. recognize how different types of tests are being constructed;
b. determine the basic principles to follow in constructing tests; and
c. apply these principles in the practical construction of tests.

CONSTRUCTION OF TESTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Teacher-made tests are indispensable in evaluation as they are handy in assessing the degree
of mastery of the specific units taught by the teacher. The principles behind the construction
of the different categories of Tests mentioned above are essentially the same. These shall
now be discussed.

Planning for the Test

Many teacher-made tests often suffer from inadequate and improper planning. Many
teachers often jump into the classroom to announce to the class that they are having a test or
construct the test haphazardly.
It is at the planning stage that such questions as the ones listed below are resolved:
(i) What is the intended function of this test? Is it to test the effectiveness of your
method, level of competence of the pupils, or diagnose area of weakness before other
topics are taught?
(ii) What are the specific objectives of the content area you are trying to achieve?
(iii) What content area has been taught? How much emphasis has been given to each
topic?
(iv) What type of test will be most suitable (in terms of effectiveness, cost and
practicality) to achieve the intended objectives of the contents?

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Measurement and Evaluation in Education (PDE 105)

Defining Objectives
As a competent teacher, you should be able to develop instructional objectives that are
behavioural, precise, realistic and at an appropriate level of generality that will serve as a
useful guide to teaching and evaluation.
This job has been made easier as these are already stated in the various curriculum packages
designed by the Federal Ministry of Education, which are available in schools.
However, when you write your behavioural objectives, use such action verbs like define,
compare, contrast, draw, explain, describe, classify, summarize, apply, solve, express, state,
list and give. You should avoid vague and global statements involving the use of verbs such
as appreciate, understand, feel, grasp, think etc.
It is important that we state objectives in behavioural terms so as to determine the terminal
behaviour of a student after having completed a learning task. Martin Haberman (1964) says
the teacher receives the following benefits by using behavioural objectives:
1. Teacher and students get clear purposes.
2. Broad content is broken down to manageable and meaningful pieces.
3. Organizing content into sequences and hierarchies is facilitated.
4. Evaluation is simplified and becomes self-evident.
5. Selecting of materials is clarified (The result of knowing precisely what youngsters
are to do leads to control in the selection of materials, equipment and the management
of resources generally).

Specifying the Content to be covered

You should determine the area of the content you want to test. It is through the content that
you will know whether the objectives have been achieved or not.

Preparation of the Test Blueprint

Test blueprint is a table showing the number of items that will be asked under each topic of
the content and the process objective. This is why it is often called Specification Table.
Thus, there are two dimensions to the test blueprint, the content and the process objectives.
As mentioned earlier, the content consists of the series of topics from which the competence
of the pupils is to be tested. These are usually listed on the left hand side of the table.
The process objectives or mental processes are usually listed on the top-row of the table.
The process objectives are derived from the behavioural objectives stated for the course
initially. They are the various mental processes involved in achieving each objective.
Usually, there are about six of these as listed under the cognitive domain viz: Knowledge,
Comprehension, Analysis, Synthesis, Application and Evaluation.
i) Knowledge or Remembering
This involves the ability of the pupils to recall specific facts, terms, vocabulary,
principles, concepts and generalizations from memory. This may involve the teacher
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asking pupils to give the date of a particular event, capital of a state or recite
multiplication tables.
Examples:
Behavioural objectives: To determine whether students are able to define technical
terms by giving their properties, relations or attributes.
Question:
Volt is a unit of
(a) weight (b) force (c) distance (d) work (e) volume

You can also use picture tests to test knowledge of classification and matching tests to
test knowledge of relationships.

(ii) Comprehension and Understanding

This is testing the ability of the pupils to translate, infer, compare, explain, interpret or
extrapolate what is taught. The pupils should be able to identify similarities and
differences among objects or concepts; predict or draw conclusions from given
information; describe or define a given set of data i.e. what is democracy? Explain
the role of chloroplast in photosynthesis.

(iii) Application
Here you want to test the ability of the students to use principles; rule and
generalizations in solving problems in novel situations, e.g. how would you recover
table salt from water?

(iv) Analysis
This is to analyze or break an idea into its parts and show that the student understands
their relationships.

(v) Synthesis
The student is expected to synthesize or put elements together to form a new matter
and produce a unique communication, plan or set of abstract relations.

(vi) Evaluation
The student is expected to make judgments based upon evidence.

Weighting of the Content and Process Objectives

The proportion of test items on each topic depends on the emphasis placed on it during
teaching and the amount of time spent. Also, the proportion of items on each process
objectives depends on how important you view the particular process skill to the level of
students to be tested. However, it is important that you make the test a balanced one in terms

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of the content and the process objectives you have been trying to achieve through your series
of lessons.
Percentages are usually assigned to the topics of the content and the process objectives such
that each dimension will add up to 100%. (see the table below).
After this, you should decide on the type of test you want to use and this will depend on the
process objective to be measured, the content and your own skill in constructing the different
types of tests.
Determination of the Total Number of Items
At this stage, you consider the time available for the test, types of test items to be used (essay
or objective) and other factors like the age, ability level of the students and the type of
process objectives to be measured.
When this decision is made, you then proceed to determine the total number of items for each
topic and process objectives as follows:
(i) To obtain the number of items per topic, you multiply the percentage of each by the
total number of items to be constructed and divide by 100. This you will record in the
column in front of each topic in the extreme right corner of the blueprint. In the table
below, 25% was assigned to soil. The total number of items is 50 hence 12 items for
the topic (25% of 50 items = 12 items).
(ii) To obtain the number of items per process objective, we also multiply the percentage
of each by the total number of items for test and divide by 100. These will be
recorded in the bottom row of the blueprint under each process objective. In the table
below:
(a) the percentage assigned to comprehension is 30% of the total number of items
which is 50. Hence, there will be 15 items for this objective (30% of 50
items).
Blue Print for Mid-Term Continuous Assessment Test (Objective Items)
Content
Process Objectives
Areas
Knowledge Comprehension Analysis Synthesis Application Evaluation Number
Recognizes Identifies facts, Break idea Put ele- Applies Judge the of items
Terms & Principles, into its ments to- knowledge worth of
vocabularies Concepts and parts gether to in new Information
Generalizations form new situation
matter
30% 30% 10% 10% 10% 10%
A Soil
4 4 1 1 1 1 12
25%
B Water
3 3 1 1 1 1 10
20%
C Weather
4 4 2 1 1 2 15
30%
D Food
4 4 1 2 2 2 13
25%
Number of
15 15 5 5 5 5 50
Items

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(b) To decide the number of items in each cell of the blue print, you simply
multiply the total number of items in a topic by the percentage assigned to the
process objective in each row and divide by 100. This procedure is repeated
for all the cells in the blue print. For example, to obtain the number of items
on water under knowledge, you multiply 30% by 10 and divide by 100 i.e. 3.
In summary, planning for a test involves the following basic steps:
(1) Outlining content and process objectives.
(2) Choosing what will be covered under each combination of content and process
objectives.
(3) Assigning percentage of the total test by content area and by process
objectives and getting an estimate of the total number of items.
(4) Choosing the type of item format to be used and an estimate of the number of
such items per cell of the test blue print.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF TESTS TO BE CONSTRUCTED

In unit 2, you learnt about the different kinds of tests. Can you still remember the test types?
List them on a piece of paper and crosscheck your answer with what was supplied in unit 2.
All the kinds of tests described earlier on can be grouped into three major parts. The first part
is objective or multiple-choice test. The second is subjective or essay type of test. And
lastly, are short-answer tests. The multiple choice tests are stated in form of questions, which
are put in the stem. You are expected to choose answers called options usually from A, B, C,
D and sometimes E that is correct or can fill the gap(s) underlined or omitted in the stem.
The essay type asks questions and sub-questions (i.e. questions within a larger unit of
questions) and requires you to respond to these by writing full answers in full sentences and
paragraphs. Short-answer questions can take various forms. They can be in form of fill-in-
gaps, completion, matching, re-ordering, etc. in this kind of test, you do not need to write full
sentences for an answer.

ACTIVITY 1
Fill in the gaps
Test can be grouped into ------------------ major groups. These are ------------------ and---------
The ------------- test has alternatives called -----, which usually follow the -------------------- of
the question.

Crosscheck your answers by re-reading the section on the different kinds of tests to be
constructed.

BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR CONSTRUCTING MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Multiple-choice questions are said to be objective in two ways. First is that each student has
an equal chance. He/she merely chooses the correct options from the list of alternatives. The
candidates have no opportunity to express a different attitude or special opinion. Secondly,

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the judgment and personality of the marker cannot influence the correction in any way.
Indeed, many objective tests are scored by machines. This kind of test may be graded more
quickly and objectively than the subjective or the easy type.
In constructing objective tests, the following basic principles must be borne in mind.
1. The instruction of what the candidate should do must be clear, unambiguous and
precise. Do not confuse the candidates. Let them know whether they are to choose
by ticking (√ ), by circling ( o ) or shading the box in the answer sheet.
ANSWER SHEET

A B C D Shading the correct

answer by shading the
1 boxes corresponding to
2 the correct options
3
4

An example of a fairly unambiguous instructions are stated below: read the

instructions carefully.
i. Candidates are advised to spend only 45 minutes on each subject and attempt
all questions.
ii. A multiple-choice answer sheet for the four subjects has been provided. Use
the appropriate section of the answer sheet for each subject.
iii. Check that the number of each question you answer tallies with the number
shaded on your answer sheet.
iv. Use an HB pencil throughout.

ACTIVITY 111
1. Study the instruction above and put on a piece of paper or in your exercise book the
characteristics of the instructions that were presented for the examination.

Crosscheck your answers with the ones below after you have attempted the activity.

As could be seen in the example just presented, instructions of a test must be:
• unambiguous
• clear
• written in short sentences
• numbered in sequence

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• underlined or bold-faced to show the most important part of the instruction or call
attention to areas of the instruction that must not be overlooked or forgotten.
2. The options (or alternatives) must be discriminating: some may be obviously wrong
but there must be options that are closely competing with the correct option in terms
of characteristics, related concept or component parts.
In question 1, choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
i. Albert thinks Mary is antagonistic because of her angry tone.
a. noble
b. hostile
c. friendly
d. harsh
Answer the question above. State the options that are competing with each
other. State the options that are obviously wrong.
Compare your answer with the discussion below.
If you have done Activity III very well, you will agree with me that option C
is the correct answer and that options A and B are competing. A if the
candidate remembers that the answer should be in the opposite and B, if
he/she has forgotten this fact.
ii. The correct option should not be loner or shorter than the rest, i.e. the incorrect
options. Differences in length of options may call the attention of the
candidate. The stem of an item must clearly state the problem. The options
should be brief.
iii. As much as possible, you should make alternatives difficult to guess.
Guessing reduces the validity of the test and makes undeserved candidates
pass with no academic effort. The distractions must be plausible, adequate
and attractive. They should be related to the stem.
iv. Only one option must be correct. Do not set objective tests where two or more
options are correct. You confuse a brilliant student and cause undeserved
failure.
v. The objective tests should be based on the syllabus, what is taught, or
expected to be taught. It must provoke deep reasoning, critical thinking, and
value judgments.
vi. Avoid the use of negative statements in the stem of an item. When used, you
should underline the negative word.
vii. Every item should be independent of other items.
viii. Avoid the use of phrases like “all of the above, all of these, none of these or
none of the above”

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ix. The reading difficulty and vocabulary level must be as simple as possible.

Basic Principles for Constructing Short-Answer Tests

Some of the principles for constructing multiple choice tests are relevant to constructing
short-answer tests.
i. The instructions must be clear and unambiguous. Candidates should know what to
do.
ii. Enough space must be provided for filing in gaps or writing short answers.
iii. As much as possible the questions must be set to elicit only short answers. Do not
construct long answer-question in a short answer test.
iv. The test format must be consistent. Do not require fill in gaps and matching in the
same question.
v. The questions should be related to what is taught, what is to be taught or what to be
examined. Candidates must know before hand the requirements and demands of the
test.

ACTIVITY IV
Answer the questions in this short answer test and bring out the characteristics of the test.
Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words or expressions.
1. In multiple choice tests each student has an ----------------. Candidates have no
opportunity to -------- a different --------- or special --------. But in short answer test,
candidates are allowed to write ----- by filling ------ or writing ---------- sentences.,

Go back to the relevant section to fish out answers that fill the gaps.

BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR CONSTRUCTING ESSAY TESTS

Essay or subjective type of test is considered to be subjective because you are able to express
your own opinions freely and interpret information in anyway you like, provided it is logical,
relevant, and crucial to the topic. In the same way, your teacher is able to evaluate the quality
and quantity of your opinions and interpretations as well as your organization and logic of
your presentation. The following are the basic principles guiding the setting of essay
question:
i. Instructions of what to do should be clear, unambiguous and precise.
ii. Your essay questions should be in layers. The first layer tests the concept, fact, its
definition and characteristics. The second layer tests the interpretation of and
inferences from the concept, fact or topic, concept, structure, etc to real life situation.
In the third layer, you may be required to construct, consolidate, design, or produce
your own structure, concept, fact, scenario or issue.

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iii. Essays should not merely require registration of facts learnt in the class. They should
not also be satisfied with only the examples given in class.
iv. Some of the words that can be used in an essay type of test are: compare and contrast,
criticize, critically examine, discuss, describe, outline, enumerate, define, state, relate,
illustrate, explain, summarize, construct, produce, design, etc. Remember, some of
the words are mere words that require regurgitation of facts, while others require
application of facts.

SUMMARY
• In this unit, you have been exposed to the basic principles for constructing multiple-
choice, short answer and essay types of tests. In all tests, instructions must be clear,
unambiguous, precise, and goal-oriented. All tests must be relevant to what is learnt
or expected to be learnt. They must meet the learning needs and demands of the
candidates. Tests should not be too easy or difficult.

ASSIGNMENT
Construct three multiple-choice, short answers and essay-tests each. Use each test
constructed to analyze the basic principles of testing.

REFERENCES
Carroll, J. B. (1983), Psychometric Theory and Language Testing. Rowley, Mass:
Newbury House.

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