Constructing subjective test items

Topic:
Constructing
Subjective Test Items

Content
 Form and Uses of Essay Tests
 Constructing Essay Items
 Evaluating and Scoring Essay Tests
 Developing Scoring Rubrics

Concept Of Essay
The word essay has been derived from a
French word ‘essayer’ which means ‘to
attempts’ .
Definition:
Essay test is a test that requires the student to
structure a rather long written response up to
several paragraphs.
( William weirsama )

Cont…..
 Subjective test is generally a test which needs
answers in form of essay, explanation and
description.
 When a teacher uses a subjective test
questions, that means students need to use
their mind and feelings to make logical claims.
 Usually in doing this test students will be
given about 90-120 min for 5-10 questions.
 Subjective tests are more challenging &
expensive to prepare, administer evaluate
correctly, but they can be more valid.

Form/Types Of Essay Test
Essay questions are classified into two types:
 Extended responses
 Restricted response

Extended Response
Extended response items require lengthy
responses that count heavily in scoring. Ideally
these items focus on major concepts of the
content unit and demand higher level
thinking.

Examples
 Describe the sampling technique used in
research studies.
 Explain the various ways of preventing
accidents in school workshop and laboratory.
 What are the implications of fuel price hike in
our economy?

Restricted Response
On restricted response items examinees
provide brief answers, usually no more than a
few words or sentences, to fairly structured
questions.

Examples
 State four uses of test in education.
 Give three advantages and two disadvantages
of essay test.
 Describe four sources of energy.

Uses of Essay Test
 Ability to supply information.
 Assess the ability to recall, organize, and
integrate ideas.
 Assess the ability to express oneself in
writing.
 Assess student understanding of subject
matter.
 Measure the knowledge of factual
information.

Constructing a good essay type test
An essay test is useful measurement
instrument only to the extent that it is
constructed, administered and scored to
ensure a high level productivity.
 Here are some suggestions as a guide for
construction of good essay type test.

Suggestions..
• While preparing questions, it should be kept in
mind that the maximum subject matter content is
covered.
• The expected length of answer of each question
should be indicated on the paper.
• There should be no overall choice in question paper.
Choice should be given for each question or it
should be section wise.
• questions should be so worded that all examinees
interpret them in the same way as the examiner
wants.

• The examiner should clearly indicate the weight of
each part of the question so that the examinees
may determine the time to be devoted to each part
of the question.
• Reasonable amount of time should be allowed to
ensure that the essay type test does not become a
test of speed in writing . It should be a power test
rather than a speed test.
• It should indicate a variety of question to assess
abilities like knowledge, understanding, analysis,
synthesis and application.
• The questions may arranged in order of difficulty,
i.e. from the easier to the more difficult.

Why we use essay Type questions
 Use essay questions in measurement of
complex achievement when it is the feature of
freedom of response is required.
 Because learners are free to select, relate and
present ideas in their own words.
 Essays questions should also be used to
measure those learning outcomes that can't
be measured by objective test items.

Scoring..??
 A test score is piece of information, usually a
number that conveys the performance of an
examinee on a test.
Scoring Essay tests:
Improving objective and relevancy in scoring
tests is to prepare an ideal answer to each
essay question and to base the scoring on
relations between examinee answers and the
ideal answer.

Types of scoring Essay Test
There are two types of scoring standard in
subjective test:
 Norm Referenced Test
 Criterion referenced Test

Norm Referenced Test
In norm referenced test, a Students
achievement is compared with the other
student in his/her group. The quality of a
student’s achievement is influenced by the
quality of the group.

Criterion referenced Test
In using criterion referenced, a student is
compared with particular standard score. This
means that individual compared with a preset
standard for acceptable achievement. A
student’s score is usually expressed as a
percentage.

Methods of scoring essay test
There are two methods of scoring essay test:
• Analytic method
• Holistic method

Point or Analytic Method
In this method, each answer is compared with
already prepared ideal making scheme
(scoring key ) and marks are assigned
according to the adequacy of the answer.

Global/Holistic of rating Method
In this method, students first sort the
response into categories of varying quality
based on their general or global impression on
reading the response.

Procedure for Scoring Essay Questions
 Using scoring method that is most appropriate
for the test item.
 Decide how to handle factors that are irrelevant
to the learning outcomes like handwriting,
spelling, punctuation.
 Prepare the ideal answer or outline of expected
answer immediately after constructing the test.
 Make comments during the scoring of each essay
item. These comments act as feedback to
students.

Suggestion For Scoring Essay Type
Questions
 The examiner should prepare a scoring for sub-
examiner, which may contain an outline for the
ideal answer.
 To avoid fatigue, only a reasonable number of
answer books should be marked in one setting by
an examiner.
 There should be consistency in assessment.
 The identity of the examinees should be kept
secret from the examiner so that ‘halo effect’
does not affect scoring.

What is Rubric.?
A statement of purpose, function and
descriptive guideline.
Scoring Rubric :
A scoring rubric evaluates the performance of
an assignment. It’s an organized way for
teacher to assess their students work and
learn what areas the student need to learn.

Why we use Rubrics
 Easy to use and explain
 Make teacher’s expectations very clear
 Support students learning, specially if
students use rubrics to self assess
 Provide more informative feedback than other
forms of assessment about both strengths and
areas need of improvement.

Types of Rubrics
 Analytic Rubric
Focus attention on one characteristic at a time
i.e. purpose, organization.
 Holistic Rubric
Consists of a single scale with all criteria to be
included in evaluation being considered
together e.g. clarity

Process of developing scoring Rubrics
1. Identification of the qualities that the teacher
wishes to observe in the students’ outputs
that would demonstrate their level of
proficiency.
2. Determined whether holistic or an analytical
rubric would be more appropriate.
3. The identification and definition of the
criteria for lowest level of performance.

References
 http://www.testshop.com/advantages-and-
limitations-of-subjective-test-items
 http://k6educators.about.com/od/GradingStu
dents/a/Rubric-For-Scoring.htm

Constructing subjective test items

Constructing subjective test items

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Constructing subjective test items