Constructing subjective test items

1. Constructing Subjective Test Items
Concept Of Essay
 Essay test is a test that requires the student to structure a
rather long written response up to several paragraphs.
Subjective test is generally a test which needs answers in form
of essay, explanation and description.
 When a teacher uses a subjective test questions, that means
students need to use their mind and feelings to make logical
claims.
 Usually in doing this test students will be given about 90-120
min for 5-10 questions.
 Subjective tests are more challenging & expensive to prepare,
administer evaluate correctly, but they can be more valid.
Form/Types Of Essay Test
Essay questions are classified into two types:
 Extended responses
 Restricted response
Extended response items require lengthy responses that count
heavily in scoring. Ideally these items focus on major concepts of the
content unit and demand higher level thinking.
 Examples Describe the sampling technique used in research
studies.
 Explain the various ways of preventing accidents in school
workshop and laboratory.
 What are the implications of fuel price hike in our economy?
Restricted Response
On restricted response items examinees provide brief answers,
usually no more than a few words or sentences, to fairly structured
questions.
Examples
 State four uses of test in education.
 Give three advantages and two disadvantages of essay test.
 Describe four sources of energy.
Uses of Essay Test
 Ability to supply information.

2.  Assess the ability to recall, organize, and integrate ideas.
 Assess the ability to express oneself in writing.
 Assess student understanding of subject matter.
 Measure the knowledge of factual information.
Constructing a good essay type test
An essay test is useful measurement instrument only to the extent
that it is constructed, administered and scored to ensure a high level
productivity.
 Here are some suggestions as a guide for construction of good
essay type test.
Suggestions..
• While preparing questions, it should be kept in mind that the
maximum subject matter content is covered.
• The expected length of answer of each question should be
indicated on the paper.
• There should be no overall choice in question paper. Choice
should be given for each question or it should be section wise.
• questions should be so worded that all examinees interpret
them in the same way as the examiner wants.
• The examiner should clearly indicate the weight of each part of
the question so that the examinees may determine the time to
be devoted to each part of the question.
• Reasonable amount of time should be allowed to ensure that
the essay type test does not become a test of speed in writing .
It should be a power test rather than a speed test.
• It should indicate a variety of question to assess abilities like
knowledge, understanding, analysis, synthesis and application.
• The questions may arranged in order of difficulty, i.e. from the
easier to the more difficult.
Why we use essay Type questions
 Use essay questions in measurement of complex achievement
when it is the feature of freedom of response is required.
 Because learners are free to select, relate and present ideas in
their own words.

3.  Essays questions should also be used to measure those learning
outcomes that can't be measured by objective test items.
Scoring..??
 A test score is piece of information, usually a number that
conveys the performance of an examinee on a test.
Scoring Essay tests:
Improving objective and relevancy in scoring tests is to prepare an
ideal answer to each essay question and to base the scoring on
relations between examinee answers and the ideal answer.
There are two types of scoring standard in subjective test:
 Norm Referenced Test
 Criterion referenced Test
Norm Referenced Test
In norm referenced test, a Students achievement is compared with
the other student in his/her group. The quality of a student’s
achievement is influenced by the quality of the group.
Criterion referenced Test In using criterion referenced, a student is
compared with particular standard score. This means that individual
compared with a preset
standard for acceptable achievement. A student’s score is usually
expressed as a percentage.
Methods of scoring essay test
There are two methods of scoring essay test:
• Analytic method
• Holistic method
Point or Analytic Method
In this method, each answer is compared with already prepared
ideal making scheme (scoring key ) and marks are assigned according
to the adequacy of the answer.
Global/Holistic of rating Method In this method, students first
sort the response into categories of varying quality based on their
general or global impression on reading the response.
Procedure for Scoring Essay Questions
 Using scoring method that is most appropriate for the test
item.

4.  Decide how to handle factors that are irrelevant to the learning
outcomes like handwriting, spelling, punctuation.
 Prepare the ideal answer or outline of expected answer
immediately after constructing the test.
 Make comments during the scoring of each essay item. These
comments act as feedback to students.
Suggestion For Scoring Essay Type Questions
 The examiner should prepare a scoring for sub- examiner,
which may contain an outline for the ideal answer.
 To avoid fatigue, only a reasonable number of answer books
should be marked in one setting by an examiner.
 There should be consistency in assessment.
 The identity of the examinees should be kept secret from the
examiner so that ‘halo effect’ does not affect scoring.
What is Rubric.?
A statement of purpose, function and descriptive guideline.
Scoring Rubric :
A scoring rubric evaluates the performance of an assignment. It’s
an organized way for teacher to assess their students work and learn
what areas the student need to learn
Why we use Rubrics
 Easy to use and explain
 Make teacher’s expectations very clear
 Support students learning, specially if students use rubrics to
self assess
 Provide more informative feedback than other forms of
assessment about both strengths and areas need of
improvement.
Types of Rubrics
 Analytic Rubric
Focus attention on one characteristic at a time
i.e. purpose, organization.
 Holistic Rubric
Consists of a single scale with all criteria to be included in
evaluation being considered together e.g. clarity

5. Process of developing scoring Rubrics
1. Identification of the qualities that the teacher wishes to
observe in the students’ outputs that would demonstrate their
level of proficiency.
2. Determined whether holistic or an analytical rubric would be
more appropriate.
3. The identification and definition of the criteria for lowest level
of performance.