Steps in Developing English Test

1. Decide the basic competence you are going to test (you may take more than one basic
competence)
2. Specify the language skill you are going to test (you may test more than one language
skill).
3. Develop table of test specification consisting of some aspects: (at least) basic
competence, materials, indicators, and number of test item.
4. In developing the test specification, make sure that the basic competence is taken from
the curriculum/syllabus as it is, including the number/code of basic competence.
5. Materials stated in the test specification must be in accordance with the basic
competence.
6. Indicators must be formulated clearly and in details, completed with condition and target
of behavior.
7. The indicators must also specify the format of the test which is appropriate with the
theory of assessment.
8. The number of test item should be specified for each indicator (one indicator may be
developed in more than one test item).
9. Once the test specification is ready, the test items are developed based on the test
specification.
10. The developed test items must be checked by others (expert) for the clarity of instruction,
the quality of the sentences/questions, the clarity of the picture (if any), the
appropriateness of time allocation with the number of questions, and the authenticity of
the test items.
11. In addition to qualitative check for the test items, quantitative check can be done for
checking the reliability and validity of the test items.
12. For reliability check, trying-out the test items to a group a students and having a
reliability coefficient is the best way to check the reliability of the test. Such reliability
check can be done through statistical calculations. The closer the reliability coefficient to
score 1, the better the reliability of the test.
13. The quantitative validity check can also be done by having statistical calculation by
comparing the students’ total score for each item with their total score in other item.
14. Other quality checks for test items involve IF and ID analysis. By having IF analysis, the
difficulty level of the test can be measured. The ability of the test item in discriminating
good students from poor students can be done by having ID analysis.
15. Finally, after finishing all analysis, the test items should be revised for better quality of
the test items and ready to be used