GUIDELINES ON TEST

CONSTRUCTION

Types of Classroom Tests

A. Objective Test
Short-Answer Items/Free Response
Items/Completion Items
Alternative-Response Tests
Matching Exercises
Multiple Choice
B. Essay Items
Restricted Response
Non-Restricted/Extended Response

Objective Test

Supply/
Free Response

Selected/
Fixed Response

Short
Answer

True-False

Completion

Essay Test

Extended
Response

Restricted
Response
Matching
Exercise
Multiple
Choice

Characteristics of a Good Test

Validity the extent to which a test
measures what it intends to measure.
Reliability the ability of the test to show
similar results when it is repeated or when
a different form is used.
Usability within the comprehension of the
students and easy to administer and score
and budget constraints.

Short-Answer Items/Free Response

Items/Completion Items
It is one in which each item appears as
a direct question or an incomplete
statement. Responses to both must be
supplied by the pupil instead of choosing
or selecting from among the options
supplied by the teacher.

Suggestions: Short-answer items

1. The item should be so worded as to elicit a
brief and a specific response.
Ex.
Poor:
Where does the Philippine Congress hold
sessions?
Improved:
What is the name of the of the building where
the Philippine Congress holds sessions?

2. The item should not be directly lifted from

the book.
3. A complete direct question is better than an
incomplete statement.
Ex.
Poor:
Congress holds sessions in
Improved:What is the name of the of the
building where the Philippine Congress holds
sessions?
4. If the response called for is a numeral, the
degree of specificity should be
indicated.

5. Blanks provided for in a series of items

should be uniform in length and should be
placed at the right side of the items.
to avoid giving cues
not to disrupt flow of thought
to facilitate checking

Suggestions: Completion Items

1. Write sentences from the textbook in own
words
2. Specify the unit required if the expected
answer is in numerical units
3. Avoid over mutilated statements
4. Omit only important words or phrases, not
trivial details
5. Avoid providing grammatical clues to the
correct answer
6. Make sure that each item has only one
correct answer
7. See to it that blanks are of uniform length

Alternate-Response/True-False

A test consists of declarative

statements in which examinees are
asked to respond or mark true or
false, right or wrong, agree or
disagree, yes or no, etc.
In short, it is a test which is made
up of items which allow only
dichotomous responses.

Guidelines/Criteria
1. Avoid specific determiners such as all,
always, never, etc.
2. Provide an equal number of true and false
statements (and should be at random
order)
3. Make sure that the item is undoubtedly true
or false
4. Avoid vague and indefinite terms of degree
or amount such as greatly, in most cases,
frequently etc.
5. Limit each item to a simple fact or idea

C. Alternate-Response/True-False
(cont.)

6. Avoid negative statements and particularly

double negatives
7. Write statements from textbooks in own
words
8. Make true and false statements
approximately equal in length
9. Ensure that there is an equal number of
true and false statements
10.Avoid long, complex/complicated item.
11.Indicate the source for statements based
on opinion

Poor :
There are so many societal problems but
most young people do not care about
them. A person who is truly socially
responsible goes out of his way to respond
to the problems of society.
Improved:
A socially responsible person participates
actively in solving societal problems.

Poor: There are two types of lesson plan, the

memorized and written plans.
Improved: According to Nelson Bossing,
there are two types of lesson plan, the
memorized and written plans.

The Matching Exercises

A matching exercise consists of three
columns. Each of the items in the first
column is to be paired with an alternative
in the second column. The items in the
column for which a match is sought are
called premises, and the items in the
second column from which the selection is
made are called responses. The answers
are to be written on the spaces provided in
the third column.

Criteria/Guidelines
1. Use homogenous premises and responses
in a single matching exercise.
2. Indicate clearly in the directions the basis
for matching where answers should be
written
3. Limit a matching exercise to a maximum of
10-15 items.
4. Label each column with a heading that
accurately describes its content
5. Keep the responses or answer choices short
and logically ordered.

Matching Items (cont.)

6. Have more responses or answer
choices than premises
7. Place all the premises and responses
on a single page.
8. Indicate in the instruction that a
response may be used once, more
than once or not at all.
9. Avoid giving pattern in the answer.

The Multiple-Choice Tests

A multiple choice test consists of items each of which
presents three to five alternatives or options in
which only one is correct or definitely better than
the others.
Two Parts:
the stem which presents the problem
the list of possible answers or alternatives
The stem of the item may be presented either as a
direct question or as an incomplete statement.
The correct option choice or alternative in each item is
merely called answer and the rest of the
alternatives are called distracters or decoys or foils.

Criteria/Guidelines
1. Make the stem of the item meaningful
so that the question being asked or task
required is clear.
2. Include as much information as possible
in the stem and keep the options as short
as possible.
3. Avoid long worded stems. Include only
the material that makes the problem
clear and specific.
4. Make sure that distracters are plausible.

5. Avoid negatively stated items. If the

negative form is used, indicator is
underlined, capitalized or italicized (e.g.
NOT, never, or except).
6. Avoid giving irrelevant or unintentional
clues to the answer.
7. Avoid of using special distracters; such
as al of the above, none of the
above, or any of the above.

8. See to it that all of the options are

grammatically consistent with the stem.
9. Keep the options approximately equal in
length or arranging them from the
shortest to longest or longest to
shortest.
10.Use each option as the correct answer
approximately an equal number of
times.
11.Vary the positions of the correct option
or arranging them at random.

Essay Question
- the examinees are allowed to organize
and present the answer in paragraph
form.
Two Types:
1. the extended response type
- examinees are allowed freedom in giving
responses
2. the restricted-response type
- the organization, length and nature of
the responses are limited.

Criteria/Guidelines
1. State the questions to elicit the desired
cognitive skills specified in the learning
outcomes
2. Write the questions in such a way that
the specific task is clearly understood by
the examinee
3. Ask all the students to answer the same
questions. Avoid using optional
questions.

4. Indicate the number of points or the

amount of time to be spent on each
question
5. Ask a colleague to critique the questions
6. Prepare a model answer to each question.