The document discusses guidelines for constructing objective tests, including true-false items and multiple choice items. It provides 18 rules for developing high-quality multiple choice questions, such as using clear and concise language, avoiding trick questions, ensuring distractors are plausible, and more. The document emphasizes designing tests to evaluate students' understanding rather than just testing reading ability.

2. 
TYPES OF OBJECTIVE TESTS
We are concerned with developing objective tests for assessing the
attainment of educational objectives based on Bloom’s taxonomy in this Chapter.
For this purpose, we restrict our attention to the following types of paper-and-
pencil tests:
(a) true-false items,
(b) multiple-choice type items,
(c) matching items,
(d) enumeration
(e) completion and
(f) essays.

3. 
Planning a Test and Construction of
Table of Specifications (TOS)
The important steps in planning for a test are:
Identifying test objectives / lesson outcomes
Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared
Preparing a Table of Specifications (TOS) Constructing the
draft test items
Try-out and validation

4. 
Planning a Test and Construction of Table of Specifications
 Identifying Test Objectives
- An objective test, if it is to be comprehensive, must cover the various
levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Each objective consists of a statement of
what is to be achieved preferably by the students.
 Knowledge / Remembering
-The students must be able to identify the subject and the verb in a given
sentence.
 Comprehension / Understanding
-The students must be able to determine the appropriate form of a verb to
be used given the subject of a sentence

5. Application/Applying
-The students must be able to write sentences observing rules
on subject-verb agreement.
Analysis/Analyzing
-The students must be able to break down a given sentence
into its subject and predicate.
Evaluation / Evaluating
-The students must be able to evaluate whether or not a
sentence observes korules on subject-verb agreement.
 Synthesis/Creating.
-The students must be able to formulate rules to be followed
regarding subject-verb agreement.

6. 
What is Table of Specifications
(TOS)?
 A Table of Specifications or TOS is a test map that guides the teacher in
constructing a test. The TOS ensures that there is balance between
items that test lower level thinking skills and those which test higher
order thinking skills (or alternatively, a balance between easy and
difficult items) in the test.

7. Table of Specifications Prototype
LEVELS OBJECTIVE ITEM
NUMBER
NO. %
1. Knowledge Identify subject- verb 1,3,5,7,9 5 14.29%
2. Comprehensive Form appropriate verb
forms
2,4,6,8,10 5 14.29%
3. Application Write sentences observing
rules on subject-verb
agreement
11,13,15,17,19 5 14.29%
4. Analysis Determine subject 12,15,18,21,23 14.29%
5. Evaluation Evaluate whether or not a
sentence observes rules on
subject-verb agreement
13,16,19,22,24 5 14.29%
6. Synthesis Formulate rules on subject-
verb agreement
Part II 10 pts 28.57%
TOTAL 35 100%

8. 
Constructing a True Or False Test
Binomial-choice or alternate response tests are tests that have only two (2)
options such as true or false, right or wrong, yes or no good or better, check (✔) or
cross out (*) and so on. A student who knows nothing of the content of the
examination would have 50% chance of getting the correct answer by sheer guess
work. Although correction-for-guessing formulas exist, it is best that the teacher
ensure that a true-false item is able to discriminate properly between those who
know and those who are just guessing. A modified true-false test can offset the
effect of guessing by requiring students to explain their answer and to disregard a
correct answer if the explanation is incorrect. Here are some rules of thumb in
constructing true-false items.

9. 
Rules in Constructing True Or False
Rule 1. Do not give a hint (inadvertently) in the body of the question.
Example. The Philippines gained its independence in 1898 and therefore
celebrated its centennial year in 2000.
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.
Rule 3. Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”. Keep sentences short.
Example: Tests need to be valid, reliable and useful, although, it would require a
great amount of time and effort to ensure that tests possess these test
characteristics.

10. 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
may 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.
Rule 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 worded use “many”
“often” “sometimes” “generally” “frequently” or “some” usually should be avoided.
E.g. Executives usually suffer from hyperacidity. The statement tends to be correct. The
word “usually” leads to the answer.

11. 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 OR 3. T 8.F
4. F 9.F 4.F 9.T
5. F 10F 5.T 10.F
For ease of correction, teachers sometime create a pattern of True or False
answers. Students will sense it and may arrive at a correct answer not because
he/she really knows the answer but because he/she senses the pattern.

12. 
 A generalization 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 a
multiple choice test consists of two parts:
 (a) the ste
 (b) the options
 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.
Multiple Choice Tests

13. 
 1) Do not use unfamiliar words, terms and phrases. The
ability of the item to discriminate or its 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.
Guidelines in
Constructing Multiple
Choice Items

14. 
 2) Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose
meanings can differ from one person to the next such
as: much, often,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 qualifiers like: 90% of the
photosynthetic process" or some similar phrase that
would be more precise.

15. 
 3) Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements.
Also, avoid use of negatives in the stem as this may
add unnecessary 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?

16. 
 4) 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?
 Poor: What does the statement "Development patterns acquired
during the formative years are NOT Unchangeable" imply?
 A.
 B.
 C.
 D.
 Better: What does the statement "Development patterns acquired
during the formative years are changeable" imply?
 A.
 B.
 C.
 D

17. 
 5) Each item stem should be as short as possible;
otherwise you risk testing more for reading and
comprehension skills
 6) Distracters should be equally plausible and
attractive.
 Example:
 The short story: May Day's Eve, was written by which
 Filipino author?
 a. Jose Garcia Villa
 b. Nick Joaquin
 c. Genoveva Edrosa Matute
 d. Robert Frost
 e. Edgar Allan Poc 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.

18. 
 7) All multiple choice options should be
grammatically consistent with the stem.
 Example:
 As compared to the autos of the 1960s autos in the
1980s
 A. traveling slower
 B. bigger interiors
 C. to use less fuel measures
 D. contain more safety

19. 
 8) 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, then the
triangles are:
 a. congruent whenever one of the sides of the triangles are
congruent
 b. similar
 c. equiangular and therefore, must also be congruent 4.
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
students to think that they are, in fact, not the correct
answers!


20. 
 9) Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item,
 Example:
 a. 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
 B. Empiricist
 C. Progressivist
 D. Rationalist
 b. Which group will most strongly focus its teaching on the interest of
 the child?
 A. Progressivist
 C. Perrenialist
 B. Essentialist
 D. Reconstructionist

21. 
 10) Done may arrive at a correct answer (letter b) by
looking at item a, that gives the answer to b. 10) 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. Changes 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 to a, b, and e.
The last distracter would play no significant role in
increasing the value of the item.


22. 
 11) Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same
order as in
 the text.
 12) Avoid use of assumed qualifiers that many
examinees may not be aware of.

23. 
 13) Avoid use of unnecessary words or phrases, which are
notrelevant to the problem at hand The item's value is particularly
damaged if the unnecessary material is designed to distract or
mislead. Such items test the student's reading comprehension
rather than knowledge of the subject matter
 Example:
 The side opposite the thirty degree angle in a right triangle is equal
to half the length of the hypotenuse. If the sine of a 30-degree is 0.5
and its hypotenuse is 5, what is the length of the side opposite the
30-degree angle?
 a. 2.5
 b. 3.5
 c. 5.5
 d. 1.5
 The sine of a 30-degree angle is really quite unnecessary since the
first sentence already gives the method for finding the length of the
side opposite the thirty-degree angle. This is a case of a teacher
who wants to make sure that no student in his class gets the wrong
answer!

24. 
 14) Avoid use of non-relevant sources of difficulty such as
requiring a complex calculation when only knowledge of a
principle is being tested.
 relevant to the problem at hand (unless such discriminating ability
is the primary intent of the evaluation). The item's value is
particularly damaged if the unnecessary material is designed to
distract or mislead. Such items test the student's reading
comprehension rather than knowledge of the subject matter
 Example:
 The side opposite the thirty degree angle in a right triangle is equal
to half the length of the hypotenuse. If the sine of a 30-degree is 0.5
and its hypotenuse is 5, what is the length of the side opposite the
30-degree angle?
 a. 2.5
 b. 3.5
 c. 5.5
 d. 1.5
 The sine of a 30-degree angle is really quite unnecessary since the
first sentence already gives the method for finding the length of the
side opposite the thirty-degree angle.

25. 
 15) Pack the question in the stem. Here is an example
of a question which has no question.
 Example:
 The Roman Empire
 a. had no central government
 b. had no definite territory
 c. had no heroes
 d. had no common religion

26. 
 16) 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"
not appropriate, since the implication has already
been made that the correct response may be partially
inaccurate.
 17) 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 two (2) options were correct, he
could then deduce the correctness of "all of the
above". This assumes you are allowed only one
correct choice
 18) Better still use "none of the above" and "all of the
above" sparingly. But best not to use them at all.

27. 
 19) Having compound response choices may purposefully increase
difficulty of an item. The difficulty of a multiple choice item may be
controlled by varying the homogeneity or degree of similarity of
responses. The more homogeneous, the more difficult the item because
they all look like the correct answer
 Example:
 (Less Homogeneous) Thailand is located in:
 a. Southeast Asia
 b. Eastern Europe
 c. South America
 d. East Africa
 e. Central America
 (More Homogeneous)Thailand is located next to:
 a. Laos and Kampuchea
 b. India and China
 c. China and Malaya
 d. Laos and China
 e. India and Malaya