• Standardized tests are usually given to all students in the state on the same hour of the same day, and most of them are multiple choice (choose answer A, B, C, etc);
• These tests might or might not affect your grade in the class;
• These types of tests are often given to students at the end of a school year before moving top the next grade;
• Tests are most commonly checked by a state educational board but not by your teacher personally. Multiple-choice tests. These tests measure both simple and more difficult knowledge. Since multiple-choice questions can be answered quickly, you can assess students' mastery of many topics on an hour exam. In addition, the items can be easily and reliably scored. Good multiple-choice questions are actually quite difficult to write.
True-false tests. They are not so reliable ones because the guessing percentage is only for about 50%. However, these items are appropriate for occasional use. Some faculties that use true-false questions add an "explain" column in which students write one or two sentences justifying their response.
Matching tests. The format of the test is an effective way to test students' recognition of the relationships between words and definitions, events and dates, categories and examples, and so on.
Essay tests. Essay tests can show the way students have adopted the material and how they can interpret it with their own words. According to statistics students show better results during the essay exam, than during selection (multiple-choice) tests: students preparing for essay tests focus on broad issues, general concepts, and interrelationships rather than on specific details, and this studying results in somewhat better student performance regardless of the type of exam they are given.
Performance tests. They require from students to demonstrate proficiency in conducting an experiment, executing a series of steps in a reasonable amount of time, following instructions, creating drawings, manipulating materials or equipment, or reacting to real or simulated situations. Performance tests can be useful in classes that require students to demonstrate their skills (for example, health fields, the sciences, education).
Useful tips:
• The problem should be put correctly for students so that they would understand what they are required to do (if possible, conditions of a performance test should mirror a real-life situation).
• Give students a chance to perform the task more than once or to perform several task samples.
"Create-a-game" exams. Students organize the game which involves elements of the learned material. Students must include the rules, game board, game pieces, and whatever else is needed to play. For example, students in a history of psychology class created "Freud's Inner Circle," in which students move tokens such as small cigars and toilet seats around a board.
Essay-type of exam can tell much about single student progress, the quality of thinking, the depth of understanding, and the possible difficulties. However, because essay tests pose only a few questions, their content validity may be low. In addition, the main drawback of the test is that the evaluation of it may be rather subjective.
Short-answer tests. This kind of test may comprise answers for both short extract and the whole paragraph. Short-answer tests are easier to write, though they take longer to score, than multiple-choice tests.
They also give you a chance to see how well students can express their thoughts, though they are not as useful as longer essay responses for this purpose.
Problem sets. In courses in mathematics and the sciences, your tests can include problem sets. As a rule of thumb, allow students ten minutes to solve a problem you can do in two minutes.
Oral exams. Unlike graduate, oral exams are not often used for undergraduate’s knowledge evaluation. They take a lot of time; make the students stressed, and it is difficult to score the results.
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