Writing Objective

Test Items
Prepared by: Genle Arreza

Writing Objective Test Items

Matching items
Suggestions for writing
Advantages and Disadvantages
Identifying faults and loopholes
Completion Items
Suggestions in writing
Advantages and Disadvantages
Identifying faults and loopholes

Matching Items
Matching type items consist of a column of
stimuli presented on the left side of the
exam page and column responses placed
on the right side of the page.( Gabuyo,
2012)
Students are required to match the
response associated with given stimulus.

Example
Direction: Match A and B
A
B
1. Lincoln
President in 20th century
2. Nixon
Invented Teleponre
3. Whitney
Delivered Emancipation
Proclamation
4. Ford
Recent president to resign
from office

5. Bell
6. King
7. Washington
8. Roosevelt

Civil Rights leader

Invented Cotton gin
Our first president
Only President elected in
more than two term.

What can you Observed?

Faults and Loopholes

Homogeneity
Order of List
Easy Guessing
Poor Direction
Too Many Correct Responses
Ambiguous List

Homogeneity
Column A contains names of president,
inventors, and civil right leaders. The
example represents too wide variety of
matching exercise.
Order of List
The list should be reversed; Column A
should be in Column B, and Column B
should be in Column A.

Easy Guessing
There are equal numbers of options and
discriptions in each column. This increase
the changes of guessing correctly
thrrough elimination.
Poor Directions
Matching directions should be specifythe
basis for matching.

 Example
Directions: Column A contains brief
descritions of historical events. Column B
contains the names of presidents. Indicate
which man was the president when the
historical event look place by placing
appropriate letter to the left of the number
in Column A.

Too many Correct Response

The president during 20th century
has three defensible answers: Nixon, Ford,
and Roosevelt.
Ambiguous List
The list should be specific. Franklin
Roosevelt or Teddy Roosevelt? When
using names always include the first and
last names to avoid ambiguities.

Suggestion for Writing

Keep both list of descriptions and list
options fairly short and homogeneous..
Make sure that all the options are
plausible distracters for each descriptions
to ensure homogeneity of lists.

 The list of descriptions should contain the

longer phrases or statement, while the
options should consist of short phrases,
words or symbols.
Each descriptions in the list should be
number and the list of options should be
identified by letter.

Include more options than descriptions.

In the directions, specify the basis for

matching and whether options can be
used more than once.

Advantages of Matching Type

The matching type is simple to construct
and score. (Reganit, 2010)
It reduces the effects of guessing,
increases as the student progresses in
answering items.

Disadvantages of Matching Type

it tends to ask students to associate trivial
information.
Matching type items can be accommodate
no more than five options.

Completion Items
Completion test. This test consist of a series of items which
requires the testee to fill a word or phrase on the blanks. An
item may contain one or more blanks. This is also called the
filling the blank type of test.( Calmorin, 2004)
The completion items require the student to answer a question
or to finish an incomplete statement by filling in a blank with
correct word or phrase.( Gabuyo, 2012)

Example
1. The evolutionary theory of Darwin is
based
on
the
principle
of
_______________
2. Columbus discovered America in?______
3. The Capital of Mexico is________.

4. In what year did William J. Clinton

become president of the United States?
__________.
5. __________ cause much frustration in
both test takers scores.
6. Armstrong was the first American to
____________.
What can you Observed?

Example
Exercise:Put a G in the space next to the items you feel
are Good and P next to the items you feel Poor.

______1. The evolutionary theory of

(Darwin) is based on the principle of
( survival of the fittest)
______2.Columbus discovered America in?
(1942)

______3.The Capital of Mexico is (Mexico).

_______4.In what year did William J. Clinton
become president of the United States
(1972 ).
_________5. (Too manyblanks) cause much
frustration in both test takers scores.
_________6. Armstrong was the first
American to ____________.

Faults and Loopholes

1.
Avoid using more than one blank per
item.
Variety of possible correct item
2.
Variety of possible correct item
what specific answer should the teacher
wanted from the students?

3.
Leaves little to be interpreted subjectively
by the student.
4.
Multiple defensive answer in completion
items.To be avoided be specific.
5.- 6 items
are having desame technicalities in the
preciding items.

Suggestions in Writing Completion

or Supply items
Item should require a single- word answer
or brief definite statement. Avoid
statements that are so indifinite that they
may logically aswered by several items.
a: World War II ended in______.
b: World War II ended in the year______.

Be sure the question or statement poses a

problem to the examinee. A direct question
is often more desirable than an incomplete
statement.

Be sure the answers that the student is

required to produce is factually correct. Be
sure that the language used in the
question is precise and accurate in relation
to the subject matter area being tested.

Omit only key words; don't eliminate so

many elements that the sense of the
content is impaired.
a: The _______ type of test item is usually
more _______ than the type.
b: The supply type of test items is usually
graded less objectively than the
________type.

Word the statement such that the blank is

near the end of the sentence rather than
near beginning. This will prevent awkward
sentences.

If the problem requires a numerical

answer, indicate the units in which it is to
be expressed.

Guidelines for Writing Test items

Begin Writing item far enough in advance
that you will have time to revise them
Match item to intended outcomes at the
proper difficulty level to provide valid
measure of instructional objectives.

 Be sure each item deals with an important

aspects of content area and not with trivia.
Be sure the problem posed is clear and
unambiguous.
Be sure the item has one correct or best
answer which experts would agree.

 Prevents unintended clues to the answer

in the statement or questions.
Avoid replication of textbook in writing test
items; don't quote directly from textual
materials.
Avoid trick or catch questions in an
achievement test.

 Try to write items that require higher level

thinking.

Advantages of Completion Test

Construction of item format is really easy'
Guessing is eliminated since the
questions require recall.
Completion questions take less time to
compete than multi-choice items, so
greater amount of contents can be
covered.

Disadvantages of Completion Test

Completion questions usually encourage a
relatively low level of response complexity.
The response can be difficult to score
since the stem must be general enough so
as not to communicate the correct answer.

 The restriction of an answer to few words

tends to measure the recall of specific
facts, names, places, and events as
opposed to more complex behaviors.

 References:
Kubiszyn,T( 2003) Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom
Application and Practice, Chapter 6:Writing Objective Test
Items,pages 107-133
Reaganit, A( 2010) Assessment of Learning 1: Cognitive Learning,
Chapter 7: Development of Classroom Assessment ,pages 66-69
Gabuyo, Y ( 2012) Assessment of Learning 1
Caalmorin, L( 2004) Measurement and Evaluation

Thank you for

listening :)