3. Finding out about achievement

An achievement test is usually a formal examination, given at the end of the school year or at the end of the course. Often it takes the form of an external test which is set by an examining body: e.g. the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the Royal Society of Arts, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

A test of achievement measures student’s mastery of what should have been taught (but not necessarily what has actually been taught). It is thus concerned with covering a sample (or selection) which accurately represents the contents of a syllabus or a course book.

If you set an achievement test for several classes as well as your own class, you should take care to avoid measuring what you yourself have taught – otherwise you will favour your own class. Based on the syllabus or coursebook rather than on your teaching, your test will be fair to students in all the classes being tested.

4. Placing students

A placement test enables us to sort the students into groups according to their language ability at the beginning of the course. Such a test should be as general as possible and should concentrate on testing a wide and representative range of skills in English. It should, therefore, avoid concentrating on narrow areas of language and specific skills.

5. Finding out about proficiency

We use proficiency tests to measure how suitable candidates will be for performing a certain task or following a specific course. It is thus possible for the test to measure candidates’ proficiency in certain special fields: medicine, social science, technology, etc. The candidates’ general command of English may not form the chief focus for a proficiency test. In this way a proficiency test looks forward to the actual ways in which candidates will use English in the future.

The main types of tests are

fill in the frame and remember it for good

R ound Up

Individually, together with your partner or in a group answer the questions below:

1. What is the difference between achievement and proficiency tests?

2. Can a test be simultaneously progress and diagnostic?

progress and placement?

placement and diagnostic?

proficiency and diagnostic?

3. What kind(s) of tests, do you think, are more often used with secondary school students?

Part II. Writing and Using Tests

Should we write our own tests?

The answer to this question clearly depends on your own ability as a test writer and on the time which you have available. It also depends on the quality of the books and tests which you can obtain.

If you buy a book of tests, look at some of the questions very carefully and try to do a few of the tests. You will soon find out if the tests are sound and reliable for your purposes. Make sure also that the test are at the most appropriate level for your students. Then find out whether they have been written to cover a whole year’s work or to accompany a small part of a certain course.

Always remember that the best tests for the classroom are the tests which you write yourself.

J.B. Heaton

How often should students be tested?

This question is difficult to answer as the type of tests you set will determine how often they are given. Your reasons for testing as well as the students’ own needs will also help you to determine how frequently you test your students. There is clearly a great difference between formal exams and informal classroom tests. Formal exams can generally be given to students once a year or perhaps every term. Informal classroom tests can be sat far more frequently. These informal tests are often progress tests and are used to diagnose difficulties as well as to encourage students.

Even informal classroom tests can disrupt learning rather than encouraging it if they are set too frequently. Remember what sometimes is said about it: “Too frequent testing is like constantly digging up a plant to see how its roots are growing” (P. Wingard).

Unfortunately, a lot of tests are harmful because they create anxiety in students. An advantage of short informal tests given frequently is that they help students to overcome such feelings. Moreover, if the class teacher is the test writer, students will soon become familiar with the type of test usually set and will feel reassured because the test contents will be based the course contents.

Tests and Quizzes

You can give classroom tests once every few weeks – sometimes even once a week. Sometimes your test may occupy the whole lesson; sometimes it may last only ten minutes or so. A short informal test of the latter type is referred to as a quiz. It is given either at the beginning or at the end of the lesson to consolidate learning. Students’ scores are not usually of primary importance here since the quiz itself is seen as an important part of the learning process: its chief purpose is for you to check what the students have learnt.

Stages of test construction

Below are the stages in constructing mostly progress and achievement tests. The stages are presented in linear fashion, however in reality you often have to refer to the previous stages and review decisions that were taken earlier.