“Essay Test”

(A Written Report)

In Partial Fulfilment of the Course Requirements in

PrEd 146n – Assessment in Learning 1
I. Objective(s)
• Define what is an essay test.
• Identify what are the advantages and disadvantages.
• State the different guidelines in constructing an essay.

II. Introduction

The word "essay" has been derived from the French word "essayer," which means "to
try" or "to attempt." According to William Weirsama, "an essay test is a test that requires
the student to structure a long written response up to several paragraphs." An essay
test presents one or more questions or other tasks that require extended written
responses from the person being tested. The essay tests are still commonly used tools
of evaluation, despite the increasingly wider applicability of the short answer and
objective type questions. Gilbert Sax (1989) believes that an "essay test is a test
containing questions requiring the student to respond in writing. The essay test has a lot
of advantages, like that it largely eliminates guessing, all degrees of
comprehensiveness and accuracy are possible, and it helps induce good study habits
such as making outlines and summaries, organizing the arguments for and against, etc.
If there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. The disadvantages are limited
sampling of the content, time consuming, the long-answer type questions are less valid
and less reliable, and as such they have little predictive value, scoring may be affected
by spelling, good handwriting, colored ink, neatness, grammar, and the length of the
answer, and such tests encourage selective reading and emphasize cramming. There
are 2 general types of essay test the extended response and restricted response. The
restricted is provide a limited response while the extended is an in-depth response. To
sum it up, an essay test needs guidelines and procedures for constructing your thoughts.
To organize their work, the students need to follow the guidelines. Essay tests are one
of the types of assessment that teachers use, not just in examinations but also in
quizzes. This kind of test will help the students express their thoughts about that kind of
problem or issue.