Some Practical steps to test construction In preparing a test, there are 3 steps to follow: dening general purposes, drawing up test specications, and devising test tasks or items.
a. Defning general purposes Purposes of tests are usually in accordance with the type of test being constructed, whether it is an aptitude test, a prociency test, placement test, diagnostic test, or an achievement test. It is better for us to know the natures of those tests. b. Assessing clear, unambiguous objectives In addition to know the purpose of the test you are creating, you need to know as specically as possible what it is you want to test. You can do this by eamining the ob!ectives for the unit you are testing. "elected ob!ectives for a unit in a low#intermediate low#intermediate integrated#skills course Form-ocused objectives (listening and speaking "tudents will $. %ecogni&e %ecogni&e and produce tag 'uestion, 'uestion, with the correct correct grammatical form and nal intonation pattern, in simple social conversation (. %ecogni&e %ecogni&e and produce wh#information wh#information 'uestion 'uestion with the correct correct nal intonation pattern
!ommunication skills (speaking "tudents will 3. "tate "tate completed completed actions actions and and events events in a social social conversati conversation on ). *sk for for conrma conrmation tion in in a social social conver conversati sation on +. ive opinio opinions ns abaut abaut an event event in a social social convers conversation ation -. Produce Produce nguage with contectually contectually appropr appropriate iate intonation, intonation, stress, stress, and rhythm.
"eading skills "tudents will /. %ecogni&e %ecogni&e irregular irregular past tense of selected selected verbs in a story or essay
#riting skills "tudents will 0. 1rite 1rite a one#parag one#paragraph raph story story about about a simple simple event in the past past 2. se con!unc con!unction tions s so and because because in a statemen statementt of opinion. opinion.
c. Dra$ing up test specifcation 4est specication for classroom use can be a simple and practical outline of your tests. 5or largescale standardi&ed tests that are intended to be widely distributed and therefore are broadly generali&ed, test specications are much more formal and detailed. 5or class#use tests, your specications will only comprise: a6 a broad outline of the tests, b6 what skills will you test, and c6 what the items will look like. "pecifying item format or types of items to be used is comple choices. 4hese informal, classroom oriented specications give you an indication of the topics 7ob!ectives you will cover, the implied elicitation and response formats for items, the number of items in each section, and the time to be allocated for each.
d. Devising test tasks 8evising test tasks or writing test items is the central part of test construction. 9ere you have to epress and write what your students have to do to show what ability or competences you want to see. *fter writing your rst draft of the task or test items, you need to ask yourself some important 'uestions: $6 *re the directions to each section absolutely clear (6 Is there an eample item for each section 36 8oes each item measure a specied ob!ective )6 Is each item stated in clear, simple language +6 8oes each multiple choice item have appropriate distractors; that is, are the wrong items clearly wrong and yet suect the learning ob!ectives *fter answering these 'uestion, when you nd any answer ?@ you need to revise or improve your test. Ideally, you need to try out all your test before actually administering the tests. Aut in our daily classroom teaching, the try out phase is almost impossible. *lternatively, you could enlist the aid of a colleague to look over
your tests. *nd so you must do what you can to bring to your students an instrument that is, to the best of your ability, practical, and reliable.
%.&r'out o test items If the test you construct is meant for standardi&ed test, you must try out it. 4hese are the components of the try out, what are being tried out and what needs to be done after the test has been tried out. 4he try outs cover the sample try out, item try out and analysis, student directions, administration direction, and time limit. 4hen we need to do technical analysis including estimating the test score means, estimating the standard deviation of test scores, and estimating reliability and item validity. Bonstruction of the test items 7ob!ective tests: multiple choices6 "uggestions for writing multiple choice items : $. 4he stem of multiple choice items should state a specic direct 'uestion. 4he stem should clearly formulate a problem. (. Bhoose words that have precise meaning. 3. *void comple word arrangements ). *dapt the range of di
