PAPER - AND - PENCIL TESTS
Paper-and-pencil assessment refers to traditional
student assessment formats such as written
tests and also to standardized tests that ask
students to use pencils to fill in bubbles on a
scannable answer sheet. Item development is a
crucial step that determines the validity and
reliability of an assessment.
KINDS OF PENCIL AND PAPER
TEST
SELECTED RESPONSE CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE
True or False Enumeration
Multiple Choice Completion
Matching Type Essays
Selected - response
helps the student to select the correct
answer form the list of opinions included
in items
Construct - response
items that ask students to writes or
construct the correct answer
SELECTED - RESPONSE TESTS
1. True or False -- a test consisting of a series of
statements to be marked as a true or false
2. Multiple Choice - a type of test which you are
given a list of answers and you have to choose the
correct one
3. Matching type - type of test provides a way for
learners to connect a word, sentence or phrase in one
column to a corresponding word, sentence or phrase in a
second column.
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE
1. Enumeration - the act or process of making or
stating a list of things one after another
2. Completion - a type of test in which the participant
is usually required to supply a missing phrase , word
or letter in a written test
3. Essays - an analytic, interpretative, or critical literary
composition usually much shorter and less systematic
and formal than a dissertation or thesis and usually
dealing with its subject from a limited and often personal
point of view.
Constructing Selected-Response Type
True-False Test
Binomial-choice or alternate response tests are tests that
you have only two (2) options such as true or false, right or
wrong yes or no good or better, check (4) or cross out (6)
and so on. . 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.
RULES IN
CONSTRUCTING A
TRUE OR FALSE
TEST
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
Obviously, the answer is FALSE because 100
years from 1898 is not 2000 but 1998.
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 a 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." Кeер 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.
Rule 4. Avoid trick statements with some minor
misleading in word or spelling anomaly, misplaced
phrases, etc. A wide 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 fal
This is an example of a tricky but utterly useless
item.
Rule 5. Avoid quoting verbatim from reference
materials 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
qualifier. Students quickly learn that strongly
worded statement 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 to than false. Statements
that are moderately worded w "many" "often"
"sometimes" "generally" "frequently or "some"
usually should be avoided. e.g. Executive usually
suffer from hyperacidity. The statement tends be
correct. The word "usually" leads to the answer.
Rule 7. With true or false questions, avoid a
gross disproportionate number of either
true or false statement or even patterns in
the occurrence of true and false
estatements.
Rule 8. Avoid double negatives. This makes
test item unclear and definitely will
confuse the student. e.g. The changes that
take place in early childhood are NOT
Unchangeable. The test item simply means
"The changes in early childhood are
changeable".
