Assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and

beliefs. This article covers educational assessment including the work of institutional researchers, but the

term applies to other fields as well including health and finance.

Types of assessment

Assessments can be classified in many different ways. The most important distinctions are: (1) formative

and summative; (2) objective and subjective; (3) criterion-referenced and norm-referenced; and (4)

informal and formal.

Formative and summative assessments

There are two main types of assessment:

Summative Assessment - Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or

project. ln an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course

grade.

Formative Assessment - Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a course or project.

Formative assessment is used to aid learning. ln an educational setting, formative assessment might be a

teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work, and would not necessarily be

used for grading purposes.

Summative and formative assessment are refered to in a learning context as "assessment of learning"

and "assessment for learning" respectively.

A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a

student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-

assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves.

Objective and subjective assessment

Assessment (either summative or formative) can be objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a

form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning

which may have more than one current answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer).

There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false,

multiple choice, multiple-response and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-

response questions and essays. Objective assessment is becoming more popular due to the increased

use of online assessment (e-assessment) since this form of questioning is well-suited to computerisation.

G riterion-referenced and norm -referenced assessments

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Compares the various grading methods in a normal distribution. lncludes: Standard deviations,

cummulative precentages, percentile equivalents, Z-scores, T-scores, standard nine, percent in stanine.

Criterion-referenced assessment, typically using a criterion-referenced test, as the name implies,

occurs when candidates are measured against defined (and objective) criteria. Criterion-referenced

assessment is often, but not always, used to establish a person's competence (whether s/he can do

something). The best known example of criterion-referenced assessment is the driving test, when learner

drivers are measured against a range of explicit criteria (such as "Not endangering other road users").

Norm-referenced assessment (colloquially known as "grading on the curve"), typically using a norm-

referenced test, is not measured against defined criteria. This type of assessment is relative to the student

body undertaking the assessment. lt is effectively a way of comparing students. The lQ test is the best

known example of norm-referenced assessment. Many entrance tests (to prestigious schools or

universities) are norm-referenced, permitting a fixed proportion of students to pass ("passing" in this

context means being accepted into the school or university rather than an explicit level of ability). This

means that standards may vary from year to year, depending on the quality of the cohort; criterion-

referenced assessment does not vary from year to year (unless the criteria change).

lnformal and formal assessment

Assessment can be either formal or informal. Formal assessment usually a written document, such as a

test, quiz, or paper. Formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student

performance. Whereas, informal assessment does not contribute to a student's final grade. lt usually

occurs in an more casual manner, including observation, inventories, participation, peer and self

evaluation, and discussion.

Characteristics of assessments

Assessment should be valid and reliable. A valid assessment is one which measures what it is intended

to measure. For example, it would not be valid to assess driving skills through a written test (alone); the

most valid way of assessing driving skills would be through a combination of practical assessment and

written test. Teachers frequently complain that some examinations do not properly assess the syllabus

upon which the examination is based; they are, effectively, questioning the validity of the exam.

Reliability relates to the consistency of an assessment. A reliable assessment is one which consistently

achieves the same results with the same (or similar) cohort of students. Various factors affect reliability --

including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, vague marking instructions and

poorly trained markers.

A good assessment is valid and reliable. Note that an assessment may be reliable but invalid or unreliable

and invalid, but an assessment can not be unreliable and valid. ln practice, an assessment is rarely

completely valid or entirely reliable.

Although validity and reliability are the main measures of an assessment, there are other considerations

such as practicality (which relates to the feasibility of the assessment), fairness (which relates to its

application across various cohorts - such as males and females) and authenticity (which relates to its

realism).

How to Write Good Test Questions

When preparing a test on any given subject matter, you are flooded with available test formats and test questions

to select from. So, how do you write the best test questions for your students? The first step in creating a strong

test for students is to choose the best test format for the cognitive ability or comprehension that you are seeking

to evaluate. Then, you must create good test questions for the chosen test format for your students. By practicing

the tips outlined below, you will be well positioned to create strong test questions for your classroom.

Choosing a Test Format

Before you begin to write test questions/ you need to determine which type of test format you are going to utilize.

The most common test formats include multiple choice questions, true or false questions, fill in the blank questions

and open-ended questions. Choose the format that best measures the student's cognitive ability in the given

subject matter,

For example, if you want the student to compare and contrast an issue taught during a history lesson, open ended

questions may be the best option to evaluate the student's understanding of the subject matter. If you are seeking

to measure the student's reasoning skills, analysis skills or general comprehension of a subject matter, consider

selecting primarily multiple choice test questions. Or, for a varied approach, utilize a combination of all available

test question types so thatyou can appeal to the learning strengths of any student on an exam.

Another factor to consider when selecting a test format is how much time the students will have available to take

the test and then also how long you will have to score them. For larger classrooms, essay format or open ended

question format test questions will be more difficult to manage both the student's time and your own as you grade

them. So, take into consideration both the objectives of the test and the overall time available for taking and

scoring your tests when selecting the best format. Once you have selected the test format, you will need to write

good test questions to utilize within the test structure.

Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions offer the most flexibility to the teacher as they can formulate a variety of test question

structures, Multiple choice questions are a great way to test a student's comprehension level of a particular

subject matter. But, they can often be the most difficult and time consuming for the teacher to construct. They

comprise of a test question stem and several available options for the student to select from as their answer.

Here are some ideas to utilize when constructing multiple choice test questions:

Don't use excessive wording when creating the test question stem. Be clear and concise in your word and phrase

choices.

Make sure that there is only one clearly correct answer from the options given to the student.

Provide between 3-5 plausible choices for the student to select from as their answer

Minimize the use of 'all of the above' or 'none of the above' question answers.

Randomly distribute the correct answer options i.e. A, B, C, D etc so that there is not a clear pattern that

becomes obvious to the student

Be sure to use test questions that test knowledge, application, comprehension, analysis and evaluation

throughout your test to get the best overall sense of the student's understanding and mastery of a subject matter

True or False Questions

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True and false questions are best used when you are looking to test a student's recall ability of specific facts or

knowledge. Keep the following tips in mind when creating true orfalse test questions:

o Make sure that the answer is clear and that it could not be either or

. Try not to use negative questions such as'this novel was not written by...." but instead use'this novel was

written by...."

r Use a random order of true and false responses with your test questions to avoid creating a pattern

r Use more false questions than true questions as they have been proven to cater towards higher cognitive level

students

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Fill in the blank questions require the student to know the correct answer rather than having the ability to guess

from a list of possible answers. Here are some tips to consider when writing good fill in the blank test questions:

o Ensure that there is only one possible correct answer to avoid confusion and difficulty grading

o Blanks should come at the end or as close to the end of the question or statement as possible

o Questions should recall important information taught within the lesson plans

Open-Ended Questions

Open ended or essay format questions are excellent for measuring higher level cognitive learning and overall

comprehension of a subject. They allow the student to select content for their response, to organize their thoughts

in a logical manner and to present their ideas on a given subject matter. Overall, these types of test questions

allow the teacher to test the student's broader understanding of a subject matter. And, these types of questions

are often more applicable to real life situations that the student may be presented with in the future.

When writing good open-ended questions, keep the following tips in mind:

r Be sure that the test question clearly states the answer that you are seeking from the student. For example,

'discuss the recent election outcome' is a poor test question. But, worded as 'describe the potential positive and

negative impacts that Barack Obama's recent election win for president could have on the US's economy' is a

better test question as it clearly gives the student something to compare and contrast within a focused area, the

US economy.

o If you are requiring the student to prepare a longer essay (2-3 pages), include several questions that are

intended to be in addition to the primary question for the student to respond to rather than only a single question

to answer.

. If you are looking to test comprehension, a good opening line forthe test question is, 'Explain the following,.,"

o If you are seeking to test the student's ability to analyze a concept, a good opening phrase for your test question

is,'compare and contrast....."

r Don't give students the option to pick 2 or 3 questions from among 5. This can add confusion for the students

and complexity for the teacher when gradlng for a classroom. How can you accurately compare students to each

other when they have answered different test questions?

When creating good test questions, first be sure that you have selected the best format for what skills or concepts

you are seeking to test for. Then, take your time to construct the best possible test questions using the tips

mentioned above.