Introduction

Achievement is the change in behavior in a desired direction. It can occur in a variety of ways
and at a variety of levels. Achievement tests comprise a very important test in the school
evaluation program. A satisfactory achievement test in science is one which gave reliable
evidence of the extent to which the students has achieved the objectives of instruction.

FUNCTIONS OF ACHIEVEMENT TESTS:

 Basis for promotion to the next class.

 Guide for the teacher to assess the entry level of each student at the beginning of the year.
 Means of motivating students before the start of a new assignment.
 Mode of assessing how effectively a teacher has been able to attain her objectives.
 Tool in identifying areas of strengths and weaknesses in a student’s understanding of a subject

TYPES OF ACHIEVEMENT TEST:

1) Teacher made test.

2) Standardized test.

TEACHER MADE TEST

Oral Written Practical

Essay type Short answer Objective type

A) Oral: - generally oral test are not taken at secondary Level or taken only during practical as Viva.

Advantages of oral test

1) Questioning over a wide coverage of subject area is possible.

2) Any misconceptions can be clarified both by the student and the
teacher.
3) Several questions on the same topic can be asked to check the
understanding of the student

Disadvantage of oral test

1) Time consuming.
2) The probability of bias exists.
3) It can be difficult to test each student of class in limited time.
 B) Written: - Written test is major form of achievement test in secondary schools.

1) Essay type: - It allows relative freedom of response to a given problem.

Familiar essay questions require answers involving.
An expansion of theories.
The explanation of processes.
The solution of problems
Descriptions of apparatus instruments etc.
Historical surveys
The interpretation of practical and numerical data.

Advantages:

1) They are easy to construct.

2) They can be used to test the student’s language mastery, expression
and organizational ability.
3) Chances of copying are minimal.
4) A student’s ability to use knowledge effectively a be assessed. It helps
to develop a variety of skills.
5) Guessing is not possible.
6) It encourages good study habits. A student preparing for an essay test
is likely to highlight important units look for relationships and exercise
judgment in deciding points of emphasis.

Disadvantages:

1) Subjective bias.
2) Encourage rote memory
3) Sampling is limited.
4) Difficult to score

Tips for writing good essay items:

Avoid Do use

 Complex, ambiguous wording  Your own words

 Questions that are too broad to  Words like ‘compare’ or ‘contrast’

allow time for an in-depth at the beginning of the question
response
 Clear and unambiguous wording

 A breakdown of marks to make

expectations clear

 Time limits for thinking and

writing
 2. Short answer type: - Short answer questions require a reasonably short answer – anything
between a few words and a paragraph or two. The number of marks allocated often give an indication of
the length.

Advantages

1) They are relatively easy to construct and can be constructed faster

than multiple choice questions.
2) Unlike matching, true/false, and multiple choice questions, short
answer questions make it difficult for students to guess the answer.
3) Short answer questions provide students with more flexibility to
explain their understanding and demonstrate creativity than they
would have with multiple choice questions;.
4) Short answer questions provide more structure than essay
questions and thus are often easy and faster to mark and often test
a broader range of the course content than full essay questions.
5) Questions can cover a wider content area than essay type tests.

Disadvantages

1) scoring is relatively laborious and can be quite subjective

2) Provide less flexibility to student to clear their concept as
compare to essay type.

Type of Avoid Do use

question

All short-  Trivia  Your own words

answer
 Long / complex  Specific problems
sentences
 Direct questions

Fill-in-the-  Taking out so many  Prompts that omit only one or

blank words that the two key words at the end of
sentence is meaningless the sentence

3. Objective type:--

A. True false: - True/false questions are only composed of a statement. Student have to state
that either it is true or false.
 Avoid Do use

 Negatives and double-negatives  Your own words

 Long / complex sentences  The same number of true and false

statements (50 / 50) or slightly
 Trivial material
more false statements than true
 Broad generalizations (60/40) – students are more likely
to answer true
 Ambiguous or indefinite terms
 One central idea in each item

B. Matching: - Students respond to matching questions by pairing each of a set of stems (e.g.,
definitions) with one of the choices provided on the exam. These questions are often used to assess
recognition and recall and so are most often used in courses where acquisition of detailed knowledge is
an important goal.

Avoid Do use

 Long stems and options  Short responses 10-15 items on

only one page
 Heterogeneous content (e.g.,
dates mixed with people)  Clear directions

 Implausible responses  Logically ordered choices

(chronological, alphabetical, etc.)

C. Tick the answer: - Similar to true false, only method of response is different.

D. Multiple choice: - The most commonly used type of question is the multiple-choice question.
Multiple-choice questions are more easily and objectively graded than essay questions and are more
difficult to answer correctly without the required knowledge than true-false questions. Multiple-choice
questions, however, are probably the most difficult type of question to construct. The following are a
few guidelines for multiple-choice question construction.
 Avoid Do use

 Never offer "all of the above" or "none
of the above" as an alternative in a
best-response multiple-choice question
 Do not repeat the words
 State clearly in the instructions whether you
require the correct answer or the best answer
to each item.
 Make incorrect alternatives attractive.
 Vary randomly the placement of correct
responses.
 Make the alternatives more similar

C) Practical: -Practical tests, tests the ability of students to.

1. Manipulate simple apparatus.
2. Carry out simple measurements or qualitative operations.
3. Apply their knowledge of practical method’s and procedures to new experiment
4. Convey to others clear statement of observed facts.
5. Make simple deductions from observed facts

CONSTRUCTION OF A GOOD ACHIEVEMENT TEST:

Major steps involved in the construction of achievement test are..

 Planning of test
 Preparation of a design for the test
 Preparation of the blue print
 Writing of items
 Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme
 Preparation of question-wise analysis

1. Planning of test

Objective of the Test

Determine the maximum time and maximum marks

2. Preparation of a design for the test

Important factors to be considered in design for the test are
 Weightage to objectives
 Weightage to content
 Weightage to form of questions
 Weightage to difficulty level
  Weightage to objectives

This indicates what objectives are to be tested and what weightage has to be given to each
objectives.

S.N. Objective Marks Weightage (Percentage)

1 Knowledge
2 Understanding
3 Application
4 Analysis
5 Synthesis
6 Evaluation
Total
3 12
2 8
6 24
8 32
4 16
2 8
25 100

 Weightage to content

This indicates the various aspects of the content to be tested and the weightage to be given to these

S.N Content Marks Weightage (Percentage)

1 Sub-topic-1 15 60
2 Sub-topic-2 10 40
Total 25 100

 Weightage to form of questions

This indicates the form of the questions to be included in the test and the weightage to be given for
each form of questions.

S.N. Form of question No. of question Marks Weightage (Percentage)

1 Objective 14 7 28
2 Short answer type 7 14 56
3 Essay type 1 4 16
Total 22 25 100
  Weightage to difficulty level
This indicates the total mark and weightage to be given to different level of questions.

S.N. Difficulty Level Marks Percentage

1 Easy 5 20

2 Average 15 60

3 Difficult 5 20

Total 25 100

3. Preparation Of Blue print

Note: O – Objective Type, SA – Short Answer Type, E – Essay Type

The number outside the bracket indicates the marks and those inside indicates the number of
questions.

4. Writing the items

The paper setter write items according to the blue print.
The difficulty level has to be considered while writing the items.
It should also checked whether all the questions included can be answered within the time
allotted.
 It is advisable to arrange the questions in the order of their difficulty level.

5. Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme

In the case of objective type items where the answers are in the form of some letters or other
symbol a scoring key is prepared

Q. No. Answer Marks (Scoring key)

1 A ½

2 C ½

3 A ½

4 D ½

 In the case of short answer and essay type questions, the marking scheme is prepared

 In preparing marking scheme the examiner has to list out the value points to be credited and fix
up the mark to be given to each value point.

Question number Value Point Marks Total marks

Value point 1 ½
Value point 2 ½
1 Value point 3 ½ 2
Value point 4 ½
Value point 1 ½
2 Value point 2 ½ 2
Value point 3 ½
Value point 4 ½
Value point 1 ½
Value point 2 ½ 2
3 Value point 3 ½
Value point 4 ½

CONCLUSION
Every teacher wants to find out the progress made by his pupil in the he teaches. Achievement in a
subject at a particular stage has to be assessed in terms of his mastery in the curricular provisions
anticipated for that stage as well as the realization of the objectives expected. Education aims at the all-
round development of a pupil and not merely at imparting knowledge to him. So it is necessary that
teachers and educators equipped with the content, dynamic method of teching, learning objectives and
appropriate evaluation techniques.

REFERENCE
Science Education : Dr.T.K Mathew and Dr. T.M. Mollykutty

Modern trends in Science teaching: Dr. T.T. Joseph

Science Education: Dr. K. Sivrajan and Prof. A. Faziluddin