ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT

LEARNING 1
CONSTRUCTING VARIOUS PAPER AND
PENCIL TESTS
 Constructing a True-False Test
Rule 1. Do not give a hint (inadvertently) in the body of question.
Example,. The Philippines gained its independence is 1898 and therefore celebrated its centennial year is
2000.______

Obviously, the answer is FALSE because 100 years from 1898 is not 2000 but 1998.

Rule 2. Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often” and other words that tend to be either always
true or always false.
Example
Christmas always falls on a Sunday because it is a Sabbath Day.______.

Statement that use the word “always ”,”never ,”often” are almost and always false. A test-wise student can
easily guess his way through a test like these and get high scores even if he does not know anything about
the test.

Rule.3 Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true” Keep sentences

short. Example:
Test need to be valid, reliable and useful, although it would require a great
amount of time and effort to ensure that test process these test
characteristics______

Rule.4 Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or spelling
anomaly. Misplaced phrases. etc. A wise student who does not know the subject
matter detect this strategy and thus get the answer correctly.

The Raven was written by Edgar Allen Poe.

Allen is misspelled and the answer would be false!
This is an example of a tricky but utterly
useless item.

Rules. 5 Avoid quoting verbatim from reference materials or

textbooks.
This practice sends the wrong signal to the students that it is
necessary to memorize the textbook word for word and thus,
acquisition of higher level thinking skills Is not given due
importance

Rule 6. Avoid specific determiners or give-away qualifiers. Students

quickly learn that strongly worded statements are more likely to be
false than true, for example, statements with “never” “no” “all” or
“always” Moderately worded statements are more likely to be true
than false.

Statements that are moderately use “many” “often” “sometimes”

“generally “frequently” or “some” usually should be avoided e.g.
Executives usually suffer from hyperacidity.
The statements tend to be correct. The word “usually” leads to the
answer.

Rule 7. With true or false questions. Avoid a grossly

disproportionate number of either true or false statements or even
patterns in the occurrence of true and false Statements.
1.T 6.F 1. T 6.F
2.F 7.F 2.F 7.T
3.F 8.F 3.T 8.F
4.F 9.F 4.F 9.T
5.F 10. F 5.T 10.

Multiple Choice Tests

A generation of the true-false test, the multiple choice Type of test
offers the student with more than two (2) options per item to choose
from. Each item in multiple choice test consists of two parts; (a) the
stem, and (b) the options. In the set of options, there is a “correct” or
“best” option while all the others are considered “distracters”. The
distracters are chosen in such a way that they are attractive to those
who do not know the answer or are guessing but the same time,
have no appeal to those who actually know the answer. It is this
feature of multiple choice type tests that allow the teacher to test
higher order thinking skills even if the options are clearly stated. As in
true-false items, there are certain rules of thumb to be followed in
constructing multiple choice tests.
Guidelines
Do not unfamiliar words, terms and phrases. The ability of the item
to discriminate or it’s level of difficulty should stem from the subject
matter rather than from the wording of the question.
• Example. What would be the system reliability of a computer
system whose slave and peripherals are connected in parallel
circuits and each one has a known time to failure probability of
0.05? a student completely unfamiliar with the terms “slave” and
“peripherals” may not be able to answer correctly even if he knew
the subject matter of reliability
Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ from
one person to the next such as: much, often, usually, etc.
Example.
Much of the process of photosynthesis takes place in the:
a. Bark
b. Leaf
c. Stem

The qualifier “much” is vague and could have been replaced by more
specific qualifier like “ 90% of the photosynthetic process” or some similar
phrase that would be move more precise.

Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements. Also, avoid use of

negatives in the stem as this may add necessary comprehension
difficulties.
Example.
• (Poor) As President of the Republic of the Philippines , Corazon
Cojuangco Aquino would stand next to which President of the
Philippine Republic subsequent to the 1986 EDSA Revolution?
(Better) Who was the President of the Philippines after Corazon C.
Aquino ?
Do not use negatives or double negatives as such statements tend
to be confusing. It is best to use simpler sentences rather than
sentences that would require expertise in grammatical construction.
Example.
(Poor) Which of the following will not cause inflation in the
Philippine economy?
(Better) Which of the following will cause inflation in the
Philippine economy?
• Each item should be as short as possible; otherwise you risk testing more for
reading and comprehension skills. Distracters should be equally plausible and
attractive.
Example.
The short story : May Day’s Eve, was written by what Filipino
• author ?
a. Jose Garcia Villa
b. Nick Joaquin
c. Genoveva Edrosa Matute
d. Robert Frost
 e. Edgar Allan Poe

If distracters had all been Filipino authors, the value of the

item would be greatly increased . In this particular
instance, only the first three carry the burden of the entire
item since the last two can be essentially disregarded by the
students.
All multiple choice options should be grammatically consistent with the
stem.
Example.
As compared to the autos of the 1960s, autos in the 1980’s _________.
a. Traveling slower C. to use less fuels
b. Bigger interiors D. contain more safety measure

The length explicitness, or degree of technicality of alternatives should not be the

determinants of the correctness of the answer . The following is an example of
this rule:
Example.
If the three angles of two triangles are congruent, that the triangles are
congruent

a. Congruent whenever one of the sides of the triangles are

congruent b. Similar
c. Equiangular and therefore , must also be congruent d Equilateral if they are
equiangular

The correct choice, “b” may be obvious from its length and
explicitness alone. The other choices are long and tend to
explain why they must be the correct choices forcing the
student to think that they are, in fact, it is not the correct
answer!
• Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item.
Example:
• Poor : Who will most strongly disagree with the progressivist who claims
that the child should be taught only that which interests him and if he is
not interested, wait till the child gets interested?
A. Essentialist C. Progressivist
B. Empiricist D. Rationalist
Better : Which group will most strongly focus its teaching on the interest
of the child?
A. Progressivist C. Perrenialist
B. Essentialist D. Reconstructionist

Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with others or those that include or
overlap others.
Example:
• What causes ice to transform from solid state to liquid state?
a. Change in temperature
b. Change in pressure
c. Change in the chemical composition
d. Change in heat levels

• The options a and d are essentially the same. Thus, a student who spots these
identical choices would right away narrow down the field of choices significant
role in increasing the value of the item If this happens then the item has two
answers,

Pack the question in the stem. Here is an example of a question which

has no question. Avoid it by all means.
Example:
The Roman Empire ___________.
a. Head no central government
b. Had no definite territory
c. Had no heroes
d. Had no common religion

• Use the “None of the above” option only when the keyed answer
is totally correct. When choice of the “best” response is intended,
“none of the above” is not appropriate, since the implication has
already been made that the correct response may be partially
inaccurate
• Note that use of “ all of the above” may allow credit for partial
knowledge. In a multiple option item. (allowing only one option
choice) if a student only knew that (2) Option were correct, he
could then deduce the correctness Of “all of the above”. This
assumes you are allowed only one correct choice.

Matching Type
• The matching type items may be considered modified multiple
choice type items where the choices progressively reduce as one
successfully matches the items on the left with the items on the
 right.

Guidelines in Constructing Matching Type of Test

• Here are some guidelines to observe in the formulation of good
matching type test.

1. Match homogeneous not heterogeneous items. The items to match must be homogeneous . If you
want your students to match authors with their literary works, in one column will be authors and in the
second column must be literary works. Don’t insert nationality for instance with names of authors. That
will not be good items since it is obviously wrong.

Example of homogeneous items.

The items are all about the Filipino heroes, nothing more.
Match the items in Column A with the items in Column B.

AB
___1. First President of the republic a. Magellan
___2. National Hero b. Mabini
___3. Discovered the Philippines c. Rizal
___4. Brain of Katipunan d. Lapu-Lapu
___5. The great painter e. Aguinaldo
___6. Defended Limawasa island f. Juan Luna
g. Antonio Luna
1. The stem (longer in construction than the
options) must be in the second column while the
options (usually shorter) must be in the first column.
2. The options must be more in number than the stems to prevent
the student from arriving at the answer by mere process of
elimination.
3. To help the examinees find the answer easier, arrange the
options alphabetically or chronologically.
4. Like any other test, the direction of the test must be given. The
examinees must know exactly what to do.

Completion Type of Test

It is, however possible to construct supply type of tests that will test
higher order thinking as the following example shows:

Example: Write an appropriate synonym for each of the following. Each blank
correspond to a letter:
Metamorphose: _ _ _ _ _ _
Flourish: _ _ _ _
The appropriate synonym for the first is CHANGE with six (6) letters while the
appropriate synonym for the second is GROW with four (4) letters. Notice that
these questions require not only mere recall of words but also understanding of
these words.

Guidelines in the Formulation of a completion Type of Test

The following guidelines can help you formulate a completion type of

test, the fill-in-the-blank type.
 1. Avoid over mutilated sentences like item # 1 below. Give
enough clue to the student.
The _____ produced by the _____ is used by the green _____ to
change the _____ and _______ into _____. This process is called
______.

The length of the blanks must not suggest the answer. So better to
make the blanks uniform in size.
A part of speech that names persons, places or things is __________.
A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to
coordinate words in the same clause called _________

The blank should be at the end or near the end of the sentence. The
question must first be asked before an answer is expected. Like the
matching type of test, the stem ( where the question is packed) must
be in the first column.
Essays

Essays, classified as non-objective test, allow for the assessment of higher order
thinking skills. Such test require students to recognize their thoughts on a
subject matter in coherent sentences in order to inform an audience. In essay
tests, students are required to write one more paragraphs on a specific topic.

Essay questions can be used to measure attainment of a variety of

objectives. 1. Comparing
- Describing the similarities and differences between….
- Compare the following methods for……

2. Relating cause-and-effect
- What are the major causes of……..
- What would be the most likely effects of…..

3. Justifying
-Which of the following alternatives would you favor and
why? -Explain why you agree or disagree with the ff.
statement.

4, Summarizing
-State the points included in…
-Briefly summarize the contents of…

5 Generalizing
-formulate several valid generalizations from the following
data. - State a set of principles that can explain the following
events. - Inferring
 -In the light of the facts presented, what is most likely to happen when…
-How would senator X be most likely to react to the bomb explosion after
the bar examination last September?
7 Classifying
-Group the following items according to …
-What do the following items have in common?

8 Applying
-Using the principles of __ as guide, describe how you would solve the following
problem situation.
-Describe a situation that illustrates the principle of __.
9. Analyzing
-Describe the reasoning errors in the following paragraphs.
 -List and describe the main characteristic of …
10. Evaluating
-Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the following …
-Using the criteria developed in class, write an evaluation of
… 11. Creating
-Make up a story describing what would happen if …
-Design a plan to prove that ..

-Write a well –organized report that shows …

Rule 1: Phrase the direction in such a way that students are guided on the key
concepts to be included. Specify how the students should respond. Example
Using details and information from the article (Hundred Islands), summarize the
main points of the article. For a complete and correct response, consider these
points:
*its history (10 pts)
 *its interesting features (10 pts)
*why it is a landmark (5 pts)
Non-example.
Using details and information from the aticle (Hundred Islands) summarize the
main points of the article.

Rule 2: Inform the students on the criteria to be used for grading

their essays. This rule allows the students to focus on relevant and
substantive materials rather than on peripheral and unnecessary
facts and bits of information.
Example: Write an essay on the topic: “Plant Photosynthesis”
using the keywords indicated. You will be graded according to the
following criteria:
(a) Coherence, (b) accuracy of statements, (c) use
of keywords, (d) clarity and € extra points for
innovative presentation of ideas.

Rule 3: Put a time limit on the essay test.

Rule 4: Decide on your essay grading system prior to getting the

essays of your students.
Rule 5: Evaluate all of the students” answers to one question before
proceeding to the next question

Scoring or grading essays tests question by question, rather than student

to student, makes it possible to maintain a more uniform standard for
judging the answers to each question. This procedure also helps offset the
halo effect in grading. When all of the answers on one paper are read
together, the
Grader’s impression of the papers as a whole is apt to influence the grades
he assigns to the individual answers. Grading question by question, of
course, prevent he information of this overall impression of a student’s
paper. Each answer is more apt to be judged of its own merits when it is
read and compared with other answers to the same question, than when it
is read and compared with the other answers by the same student.

Rule 6 : Evaluate Answers to essay questions without knowing the

identity of the writer. This is another attempt to control personal
bias during scoring. Answer to essay question should be evaluated in
terms of what is written, not in terms of what it is known about the
writers from other contacts with them. The best way to prevent our
prior knowledge from influence our judgment is to evaluate each
answer without knowing the identity of the writer. This can be done
by having the students write their names on the back of the paper or
by using code numbers in place of names.

References:
Aaron, A. R., Elicay, R. S., & Laguerta, C. C. (2010). Assessment of
Student Learning 1. C&E Publishing Inc.
Corpuz, B. B., & Cuartel, I. E. (2021). Assessment in Learning 2:
Authentic Assessment. Lorimar Publishing Inc.
Navarro, R. L., & Santos, R. DG (2013). Authentic Assessment of
Student Learning Outcomes. (2nd ed). Lorimar Publishing Inc.
Navarro, R. L., Santos, R. G., & Corpuz, B. B. (2019) Assessment of
Learning. (4th ed). Lorimar Publishing Inc.