COURSE CODE: EFN 5306

COURSE TITLE: CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

PREPARED BY

DR. LEYLAND F. THOMPSON

ROOM No: F26

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Lesson 9: Assigning & Describing Marks/Grades

Essay-type questions

Some aspects of complex achievement are difficult to measure objectively. Learning outcomes
that indicate students are to originate ideas, to organize and express ideas and to integrate
ideas in a global attack on a problem require the greater freedom of response provided by the
essay test.

Constructing Essay-type Questions (Suggestions)

(i) Restrict the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes that cannot be satisfactorily
measured by objective items.

(ii) Formulate questions that will call forth the behaviour specified in the learning outcomes.

(iii) Phrase each question so that the student’s task is clearly indicated.

(iv)Indicate an approximate time limit for each question.

(v) Avoid the use of optional questions.

Scoring Essay-type Questions(Suggestions)

(i) Prepare an outline of the expected answer in advance.

(ii) Use the scoring method that is most appropriate (point method or rating method).

(iii) Decide how to handle factors that are irrelevant to the learning outcomes being measured.

(iv)Evaluate all answers to one question before going on to the next.

(v) Evaluate the answers without looking at the student’s name.

(vi) If especially important decisions are to be based on the results, obtain two or more
independent ratings.

Illustrating Scores (data) Graphically

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A frequency distribution presents test data in a clear, effective manner, and it is satisfactory for
most classroom purposes. However, to study the distribution of scores more carefully or to
report the results to others, a graphic representation will be more useful. The two most
commonly used graphs are the Histogram (or bar graph) and the Frequency Polygon (or line
graph). In constructing both the histogram and the frequency polygon, the individual scores or
scores grouped in the class intervals, are shown along the base line or horizontal (x) axis, while
the vertical (y) axis to the left of the graph indicates the number of students earning each score
and thus corresponds to the frequency column.

Histogram

The Histogram presents the data in the form of rectangular columns. The base of each column is
the width of the class interval, and the height of the column indicates the frequency or number
of students falling within that interval. It is as if each student earning a score within a given class
interval was standing on the shoulders of the student beneath, to form a “human column”.

Frequency Polygon

The Frequency Polygon is constructed by plotting a point at the midpoint of each class interval
at a height corresponding to the number of students or frequency, within that interval and then
joining these points with straight lines

Frequency Distribution

Example: The following 40 marks were scored by a class in an Arithmetic test:

8, 6, 5, 2, 10, 9, 3, 2, 1, 6, 7, 5, 4, 5, 2, 0, 5, 6, 7, 4, 3, 4, 6, 8, 5, 7, 4, 3, 5, 3, 4, 9, 5, 7, 6, 5, 3, 1, 4,
6.

Frequency Distribution

Mark Tally Frequency

10 / 1
9 // 2
8 // 2
7 //// 4 (Figure 4)
6 //// / 6 Histogram &
5 //// /// 8
4 //// / 6 (Figure 5)
3 //// 5 Frequency
2 /// 3
1 // 2 Polygon
0 / 1
N = 40 Steps in the
Construction of a
Histogram
(i) Draw a horizontal line, along which mark off units to represent each score (mark) from 0-10
as indicated in Figure 4.

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 (ii) Draw a vertical line through the extreme end of the horizontal axis along which mark off
units to represent the frequencies of each mark from 0-8 as indicated in Figure 4 (Remember 8
is the highest number of frequencies in the distribution of the test marks).
(iii) Draw rectangles with the marks as base and the respective frequencies as height.

Frequency Distribution (Class –interval)

When the range of marks is greater than about 15, a frequency distribution of individual marks
becomes unwieldy.

The scores (marks) are grouped into class intervals with the number of scores falling in each
interval being tallied (added), and the tallies counted to obtain the frequency, or number of
scores in each interval. The total number of scores (N) is the sum of the numbers in the
frequency column.

Frequency Distribution of 40 Test Scores

Class Interval Tally Frequency

48 – 50 / 1

45 – 47 / 1

42 – 44 // 2

39 – 41 //// 5

36 – 38 //// / 6

33 – 35 //// /// 8

30 – 32 //// // 7

27 – 29 //// 4

24 – 26 /// 3

21 – 23 // 2

18 - 20 / 1

N = 40

The following
points should be observed during construction of a Frequency Distribution:

A satisfactory number of class intervals is usually between 10 and 20.

The most convenient size to use for the class interval can be determined by dividing the total
score range by 15 and taking the nearest odd number. An odd number is preferred, so that the
midpoint of each interval will be a whole number.

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 49, 47,43, 44, 42, 39, 39, 40, 40, 41, 36, 37, 37, 38, 38, 36, 33, 35, 34, 34, 35, 33, 35, 33, 30, 32,
31, 30, 32, 31, 29, 28, 27, 28, 26, 25, 24, 21, 23, 18.

For example, the range of scores above is 49 – 18 = 31. Dividing 31 by 15, we obtain 2.07. The
nearest odd number is 3, so that was selected as the size of the interval. The midpoint of the
lowest interval is 19, the midpoint of the next highest interval is 22 and so on. The midpoint of
any interval can be determined by adding the score limits of the interval; and dividing by 2.

Figure 6: Frequency Polygons showing two contrasting frequency distributions (English and Arithmetic)

Figure 7: Frequency Curve: The points of the frequency polygon lie along a curve .

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Skewness

The marks in Figure 8 are massed towards the higher end of the scale. This is known as
skewness. The distribution in this instance is skewed towards the left and is called negative
skewness.

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Figure 8 Figure 9

This type of distribution of marks indicates that the examination may have been too easy for the
class, the majority of the students scoring high marks.

The curve in Figure 9 is skewed positively, or to the right, when the marks are massed at the low
end of the scale and spread out gradually at the high end. This type of distribution of marks
indicates that the examination had no simple questions or may have been too difficult.

END OF UNIT 9: LESSON 8

A look at skewed distributions

Skew (1 of 3)
A distribution is skewed if one of its tails is longer than the other. The first distribution shown has a
positive skew. This means that it has a long tail in the positive direction. The distribution below it has
a negative skew since it has a long tail in the negative direction. Finally, the third distribution is
symmetric and has no skew.