Question bank preparation - Kajal Thakur

1. SEMINAR
ON
QUESTION BANK PREPARATION
PRESENTED BY :
KAJAL THAKUR
MSc(N) 1st Year

2. INTRODUCTION
A question is an utterance which typically
functions as a request for information, which is
expected to be provided in the form of an answer.
A question bank is a planned
library of test items designed
to fulfil certain predetermined
purposes.

3. DEFINITION
• “A question bank is defined as an organized
collection of test items that can be assessed for
test development.”
-Rudner
• “An item bank or questions bank is a collection of
test items organized, classified and catalogues the
order to facilitate the construction of a variety of
achievement and other types of mental test”.
-B.H Choppin

4. • Question bank is a kind of reservoir of a
number of sets of questions on each subjects in
which examination is to be held and from
which a set for any particular examination
would be picked out at random and at short
notice and sent to the press.

5. CHARACTERISTICS
Based on
purpose
Within range
of student’s
knowledge
Stimulate an
educative
response
Continuous
process
Presents level
of a particular
course
One idea at a
time
Maintains
record

6. Improves teaching learning process
Improves evaluative process
Can be used for formative as well as
summative evaluation
Helps in proper selection of questions
Helps in development of well designed
question paper.
Serves as a pool of readymade quality
questions
P
U
R
P
O
S
E
S

7. NEED OF QUESTION BANK
1) Before the test, the teachers are generally not getting
adequate time to prepare questions. Naturally in the
absence of adequate time, they prepare them
haphazardly.
2) Construction of test questions on the spot is rather
difficult. It is time consuming.
3) If there is an item or question bank, the material from
it can be used by any teacher and examiners.
4) It is needed to produce and evaluate questions.

8. STUDENT LEARNING
• Student outcomes
• Collaborative/
cooperative
learning
• Student effort and
involvement
FOR THE TEACHER
• Organisation and
preparation
• For studies and
investigations
• For review purpose
• As an instructional
material.
• For grading and
classification of
students
FOR EXAMINING
AGENTS
• For raising level of
testing in
examination
• Saving time in
setting improved
question papers.
• Setting good
questions for
examination
papers
USES / DIMENSIONS

9. PRINCIPLES
1. Spend adequate amount of time for developing the
question.
2. Match the questions to the content.
3. Try to make the question valid, reliable and
balanced.
4. Use a variety of testing methods.
5. Write questions that tests the skills other than recall.

10. 6. While framing question, it has to be ensured that
they are unambiguous, simple in the language
and brief as far as possible.
7. Each of the questions should evaluate some
specific content area or learning outcome.
8. Their difficulty level should be appreciated to
the group of learners being tested.
9. Each question should be accompanied with some
specific information. Item in each section should
be arranged in order of their difficulty, as far as
possible.

11. 10.All the objective items should be grouped in
one section, while the short answer type and
essay type item should be in another section.
11.In the section of objective type items having
the same format, e.g. Yes- No type, True-
False type, multiple choice types etc should
be grouped together.
12.Item in each section should be arranged in
order of their difficulty, as far as possible.

12. PREPARATION OF QUESTION
BANK :
Steps include :
1. Planning and setting objectives
2. Development of question bank and collection of test
items
3. Blueprint of question bank
4. Writing of questions
5. Screening of questions
6. Preparing question cards
7. Coding of questions
8. Filing (recording) and storage of questions
9. Developing a system for maintaining confidentiality

13. 1. Planning and setting objectives :
• It maybe general objective or specific objective. It is based
on target group, amount of effort, subject, and time target.
2. Development of question bank is done by collecting various
items required for the test.
3. Blueprint of question bank :
A mere collection of large number of questions will not
constitute a question pool of quality, unless all such items fit
into a pre determined structure of question pool in a blue
print. Specification of objectives is considered unless the
items are relevant to the objective of the program for which
the question pool is being developed.

14. 4. Writing of questions :
• Questions may be invited from the experienced
teachers, examiners.
• While inviting questions outline has to be
given (specification of question, key outline
answer, objectives and interventions).

15. 5. Screening of questions :
i) First level screening: It is usually for
comments after the questions are written.
Sheets are passed to other members of group
for their comments. These comments are
passed on to the author of question who in
constitution with 2 or 3 participants finalizes
the question.

16. ii) Second level screening: done by group of
three subject experts who are familiar in field
of test construction. Such group comprises :
• Subject specialist who are able to pass
authority of subject matter.
• Teacher who has experience of teaching in
that particular class.
• An evaluation expert who helps in improving
the format of questions in the light of objective
to be tested.

17. 6.Preparing the question cards :
• After screening by experts, the questions here
after referred to as an item may be typed or pasted
on the front side of card.
• Finalized questions may now be transferred to
cards made of thick chart paper cut into 8” x 5”
size for e.g. we may use different colours scheme
in preparing cards for different objectives and
various form of questions.
• On the back side of the card may be given the
source from where it has been collected, outline
of expected answer and date and purpose of its
use.

18. 7.Coding of Questions :
• After the cards are prepared they are to be
coded and classified in a manner that
facilitates their use.
• This is necessary for quick location and sorting
of cards just like book in library.
• Coding can be done for the subject, in
structural objectives and forms of question.

19. 8.Filing and storage of questions :
• Question cards are sorted and rearranged topic
wise after looking at code number written on
question cards.
• The Steel almirah with 4 or 5 cabins may be
used to hold the question cards.
• All question cards and other material may be
stored in duplicate, so that one copy may be
kept intact for official use and reference.

20. TYPES OF QUESTIONS USED IN
A QUESTION BANK :
1. Objective type test :
• Selection type :
i. True or false items
ii. Multiple choice items
iii. Matching type
iv. Extended matching questions
v. Multiple response item
vi. Assertion–reason items
• Supply type :
i. Short answer type
ii. Completion type

21. 2. Subjective type :
• Extended response type:
i. Long essays
• Restricted response type:
i. Short essays
ii. Short answers
iii. Very short answers

22. VALIDATION OF QUESTION
BANK
• Validation means the act of validating, finding
or testing the truth in something.
• Validation is the process of determining
whether or not the standard at a given phase of
its development fulfils established
requirement.
• A test is said to be valid if it measures what it
intends to measure.

23. TYPES OF VALIDITY
1) Content validity
2) Construct validity
3) Criterion related validity
4) Concurrent validity
5) Face validity

24. STEPS OF VALIDITY
Questioner analysis
(before commencement of test)
Critical Evaluation
( during the test)
Item Analysis
(after the test)

25. MODERATION BY PANEL
• Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening
extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout
the medium on which it is being conducted.
• It ensures the consistency of standards and fairness
across a range of assessment criteria.
• The moderator acts as a reviewer of standard and
consistency. He is a person apart from the examiner
that is appointed by the institution.

26. NEED FOR MODERATION
• To reduce the grievances of the learners
pertaining to marks.
• To avoid any injustice to the students.
• As a substitute of re-evaluation.
• For supervisory work over the examiners.

27. MODERATION COMMITTEE
It consists of :
a) Vice-chancellor
b) Controller of examinations appointed by
honourable chancellor of university in the
state to prepare uniform ordinances for the
conduct of examinations.

28. UTILIZATION OF QUESTION
BANK
Utilization of Question Bank is practical for its
purpose. Question bank should be simple enough to
be utilised by the question bank constructor and the
students.
Utilization includes practical features such as :
1. Ease of administration.
2. Ease of scoring.
3. Ease of interpretation and application.

29. 5. Availability of equivalent or comparable forms
of same types of question banks and cost of its
preparation.
6. For instructional purpose.
7. For pre testing, development, review and
revision of a lesson.
8. For preparing review exercises in the text books.
9. For preparation of teaching units or resource
units.
10.For evaluating the pupil’s progress.
11. For quick revision.

30. ADVANTAGES OF QUESTION
BANK PREPARATION
1. Storage of large number of questions.
2. Saves time and energy over conventional test
development.
3. Makes available ready-made test items for use
by every teacher.
4. Provides platform for discussing curriculum
goals and objectives.
5. Most of the examination weakness is minimized
by using question bank.
6. The cooperative efforts result in improvement of
item quality.

31. LIMITATIONS OF QUESTION
BANK PREPARATION
1. A teacher alone cannot prepare large number
of questions.
2. It requires great deal of work in terms of
preparation and planning.
3. All the items should be analyzed before
including in question bank.
4. Item analysis involves the use of various
mathematical and statistical procedures.

32. SUMMARIZATION
• Introduction of question bank preparation
• Definition of question bank preparation
• Characteristics, purposes, need and uses of question bank
• Principles of question bank
• Steps in preparation of question bank
• Types of questions
• Definition of validation of question bank
• Uses, types and steps of validation
• Moderation by panel
• Need, moderation committee
• Utilization of question bank
• Advantages of question bank
• Limitations of question bank

34. DEVELOPING A SYSTEM
FOR
MAINTAINING
CONFIDENTIALITY
PRESENTED BY
KAJAL THAKUR
MSc (N) 1st YEAR

35. CONFIDENTIALITY
• Confidentiality is a set of rules or a promise that
limits access or places restrictions on certain type of
information.
• It includes :
- Keeping information protected from unauthorised
viewers.
- Ensuring that information is accessible only to those
who are authorised to have access.
- Trusting another person with information that will not
be shared.

36. NEED FOR CONFIDENTIALITY
• The examination division of the University has to prepare
question papers and distribute them to all the colleges. As
such there is a high possibility of leakage while printing
and distributing of the papers.
• To eliminate the possibility of leakage of question papers
and also to avoid the mass copying in the colleges, the
concept of question bank with random generation of
papers was designed.
• Electronic distribution papers of examination (EDEP)
system has been designed and is being implemented from
December 2002.

37. RESOURCES REQUIRED
A well-equipped computer lab facility with networking
Trained data entry operators
Continuous high speed internet connectivity to upload
encrypted papers
Sufficient space for storage and moderation of
question banks.

38. THE PRACTICE
1. For each subject, four sets of question papers are
prepared.
- These are encrypted (coded) using a specially
designed encryption tool and then they are placed on
the examination portal of the university.
- The encrypted version of the question papers are also
sent to all the colleges in CDs.
- These question papers can be decrypted by entering
three levels of passwords, in addition to a college
password.

39. 2. First is the University (public) key, which is
common for all the colleges.
- Second is the college (or private) key, which is
known only to concerned college principal and
his/her staff.
- The third password is given on the day of the
examination about one hour before the time of
examination.
- The colleges can then decrypt and print the
papers for circulating to the candidates.

40. 3. The question banks are prepared by experienced
faculty in the respective subjects.
- The faculty member’s names are selected based
on the suggestion by the respective HODs.
- Wherever the experts in the concerned field are
not available within the university, the
experienced staff from the affiliated colleges or
other universities are given the task of preparing
question banks.

41. 4. These question banks are moderated by other
faculty members, who check the questions for
correctness and who make any changes if
required.
- They also grade the questions in three categories
according to the level of the difficulty.
- This ensures that the four sets generated are of
similar difficulty levels.

42. 5. These question banks are then ready for use
to generate papers as and when required.
- This system was used for the first time in
April 2005.
- This ensures that the paper will be kept
confidential and also minimizes human
intervention after the question banks are
finalized.

43. ADVANTAGES
i. The possibility of leakage from
the paper setter will be eliminated.
ii. The efficiency of setting question
from one unit alone will be
normally high and the expert can
work fast.

44. iii. Since seating arrangement and four different
question papers are distributed, mass copying
will be eliminated.
iv. Printing of question papers at Security press is
eliminated and thus the possible leakage of
papers from the press is avoided.
v. The possibility of opening of wrong question
papers is eliminated and thus the examination
schedule will not be affected.

45. DISADVANTAGES
i. The only disadvantage is that
with changes in the syllabus,
these changes have to be
identified carefully and the
Banks have to be changed.
ii. The main hurdle has been in identification of subject
experts for moderation and for preparation of
question bank.

46. SUMMARIZATION
• Meaning of confidentiality
• Need of confidentiality
• Resources required
• Practice involved
• Advantages
• Disadvantages