"Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the

time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don't know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire

to know it." 

DIFFERENT TYPES OF

TEST QUESTIONS

Matching Type• True – false• Multiple choice• Completion• Matching type• Numerical and algebraic

Exercise• Problem solving• Essay

Matching Type• The matching-type item is basically a

multiple choice test in which the examinee associates an item in one column with a choice in the second column.

• Items are usually listed in the first column and options in the second column.

• Matching items are useful in measuring students ability to make associations, discern relationships, make interpretations, or measure knowledge of a series of facts.

Matching Type The Matching FormatThe matching test item format 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. The items in the first column are called premises and the answers in the second column are the responses. The convention is for learners to match the premise on the left with a given response on the right. By convention, the items in Column A are numbered and the items in Column B are labeled with capital letters.

Guidelines for Writing Matching Items• Employ a homogeneous list.• Use relatively brief lists, placing

the shorter words or phrase at the right.

• Employ more responses than premises .

• Describe the basis for matching and the number of times responses may be used.

• Place all premises and responses for an item on a single page.

Classification Items• The classification Items consist of

a list of statements or words and a key list of categories.

• The two lists may be arranged in parallel columns with the statements on the left and the categories on the right.

• The directions should instruct the students to classify each entry in the list according to the letter of the category for classification.

Guidelines for Writing Classification Items• Each word or statement must

belong definitely to one class or category.

• A clear explanation of the test and classification system must be provided.

• The categories in the list of alternatives should be exhaustive, mutually exclusive, and yet have a relationship within the structure.

Completion Items• The completion test is the most

structured of all constructed – response items and it offers the least freedom in giving response.

• The task is presented in a sentence in which a word, a number, a symbol, or a series of words has been omitted.

• Students are asked to finish the sentence by constructing a response that makes a complete statement.

Guidelines for Writing Completion Items• The blank should be placed at or near

the end of the sentence.• Write each item so that all students

have the same frame or reference.• All blank spaces should be of the same

size.• Indicate the unit to be used when the

response requires the unit of measures.• Write completion items with only one

blank or a related series of blanks.• There should be only one correct

response to each blank.

ACTIVITY• Group Activity –Each group

will construct/write a sample test items assigned for them.

• Group I – Matching Type • Group II – Classification Item• Group III – Completion Item

.

Short-Answer Essay Questions• The short-answer

essay is intended to elicit a brief response to a question or instruction.

Extended-Answer Essay Questions• This technique is used when the

instructional intent is broadly focused on a single objective and the response to a question is considered the whole instructional intent.

• This is used in situations where comprehensive knowledge is to be tested to ascertain that this is general and extensive rather than specific and highly focused.

Criteria for Preparing Test Questions Assume that the examinees and examiner

know nothing at all about the objectives tests.

Use a clear, succinct style and be explicit as possible, but avoid long drawn-out explanations.

Emphasize the more important directions and key activities through the use of underlining, italics, or different types or sizes of style.

Keep the directions for different forms, subsections, or booklets as uniform as possible.

Wherever necessary, give practice items before each regular section.

The Constructed-response

Completion Short-answer essay Extended-answer essay

Constructed-response Items

Constructed –response items presented tasks that require the examinee to create response within the structure provided by each item.

PROBLEM-SOLVING

Mathematical problems Technical problems Open-search problems

Open-search Problem1. Find all primes that are one less than a fourth power.2. Let S = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7). How can S be partitioned so that the sum of the elements in each subset is constant?3. Draw plane figure with equal areas.4. Plan an outing with your friends to a certain resort and prepare a list of expenses given that you have only Php 50,000.005. Design a basketball court, given the size of the lot.

BINARY-Choice Items Binary choice items which are

presented in declarative form require the student to decide on the truthfulness of a given statement.

The student marks “TRUE” if the statement is essentially true and “FALSE” if the statement is essentially false.

Alternative True-False YES – NO RIGHT – WRONG CORRECT – INCORRECT MODIFIED TRUE - FALSE

Multiple –Choice Items Multiple – choice items are

presented to a students who is to select a response from a set of alternatives or options.

The student’s task is usually introduced in a direct questions or incomplete statement known as STEM.

The listed responses are known as OPTIONS or ALTERNATIVES.

The incorrect options are called DISTRACTERS.

Guidelines for Writing Binary-choice Items

Writing items so that a superficial analysis by the student suggests a wrong answer.

Use negative treatments rarely and never use double negatives.

Test only one concept in each statement.

The number of items representing the two categories being used should be the same .

Keep item length the same for both categories being tested.

Varieties of Multiple-Choice Items

The Correct-Answer Variety1. This variety of the multiple –choice form

consists of an item stem followed by several responses, one which is ABSOLUTELY correct.

2. Here, the problem should clearly point to the theme of the correct alternative answer.

Example of Correct-Answer Variety The value of (x+3) when 3x – 5 = 10 is a. -5 c. 6 b. 5 d. 8

The Best-Answer VarietyThis variety consists of a stem

followed by 4 or 5 suggested responses that are correct or appropriates in varying degrees. The examinee is instructed to select the BEST response.

Multiple Choice

Test

Variations

This is actually one of the great strengths of multiple-choice items. There are several good variations that make multiple choice a very flexible item format.

Correct Answer: The key is clearly right and the distracters are clearly wrong. For example, computation items often fit this category.

The formula for calculating Work is: a) ½*m*v2 b) 1N*m c) m*g*h d) F*D*cos q

(Answer is a)

Best Answer: Here, the key is the best choice (most complete, most comprehensive) while distracters, though "correct", may be incomplete. What are the key elements that define Work in physics? a) force and cause b) force and displacement c) force, cause and displacement

(Answer is C)

Interpretive Exercises: These rely on a stimulus material and consist of a multiple-choice question or series of questions about the stimulus. Stimulus material can consist of many things: text, a graph, a picture, a table, etc. This format is particularly useful in tapping into several different ways of knowing quickly. Based on the same stimulus material, you can ask a knowledge question, an application question and a synthesis question, for example.

Problem A: You are asked to design a hoist system to move sacks of grain from the entrance to a grain warehouse to a loft five meters above the entrance. Each grain sack weighs 60 kg, and the warehouse operator wants to move 20 bags per minute.

NOTE: Refer to Problem A when answering questions 1, 2 & 3. ◦ What formula would you use to compute the amount of work required to move

one bag of grain from the ground floor to the loft?a) ½*m*v2

b) 1N*mc) m*g*hd) F*D*cos q

(Answer is a)

Analysis

There are essentially two kinds of analysis possible with multiple choice questions. The first kind of analysis, scoring models, deals with scoring the test to determine student achievement. The second kind of analysis, item analysis, deals with analyzing how well each test item functioned.

Scoring Models: With multiple-choice questions, there are several potential ways to score students' responses. Here are two:

One is the full credit model where the response is either correct or incorrect. The student's total score is then the sum of correct responses.

A second is a partial credit model where some responses receive full credit and others fractional credit. This works best with “best answer “questions or ones where students may choose more than one answer. You can reward students who pick a correct but not best answer, for example.

A final issue in scoring is the weighting of items. The easiest approach is to let each item equal one point so all are equally weighted. However, based on the Test Blueprint or other considerations, you may decide to prioritize some items over others and weight them accordingly in computing the final score for the test.