Achievement test

MEANING OF ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Achievement means one’s learning attainments, accomplishments, proficiencies,

etc. It is directly related to the pupil’s growth and development in educational
situations.

Tests should give an accurate picture of students’ knowledge and skills in the
subject area or domain being tested. Accurate achievement data are very important
for planning curriculum and instruction and for program evaluation. Test scores
that overestimate or underestimate students’ actual knowledge and skills cannot
serve these important purposes.

Definition

“Any test that measures the attainments and accomplishments of an individual after
a period of training or learning”.

-NM Downie

‘The type of ability test that describes what a person has learned to do’

–Throndike and Hagen

“A systematic procedure for determining the amount a student has learned through
instructions”

–Groulund
 FUNCTIONS OF ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

1. It provides basis for promotion to the next grade.

2. To find out where each student stands in various academic areas.

3. It helps in determination about the placement of the students in a particular

section.

4. To motivate the students before a new assignment has taken up.

5. To know effectively the student is performing in theory as well as in other

areas.

6. To identify the problematic area of the child.

Characteristics of good achievement test

1. Validity-A test is considered as valid when it measures what it is supposed to

measure. If, for example, a teacher is interested to see whether a student has
developed the sub-domain of understanding of the content taught to him/her.
For this the question should be framed in such a way that it tests student's
'understanding. The action words of testing understanding are-'Explain in your
own words , Distinguish between- Similarly if the teacher wants to see whether
a student has learnt up to the 'Application level' or not, he/she will present a
new situation and will see whether the student can use his/her 'understanding
and knowledge to solve the problem or not. In this way the test questions should
be such that they test whatever the teacher intends to test. Thus a valid test
serves the purpose for which it has been set.
 2. Relaibility

A test is reliable if different teachers assessing it give the same marks. Such
reliability is known as inter-examiner or
teacher, assessing the same question at different
timings( say after some weeks or months) and gives marks, such reliability will
be considered as intra-examiner or intra-rater reliability. It shows that .
Reliability' is the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and
consistent results. Thus reliability is an important feature of a good test.

3.Objectivity

-It means questions should be to the point and shouldn't be out of the context or
out of the syllabus.

-Also, questions shouldn't be biased.

4.Validity

-Test should be valid enough i.e. purpose of the particular item should be fulfilled,
i.e the test item should fill its purpose.

5.Usability

-Test should be :-

1. Easy to conduct and implement.

2.It should be economical.

3. Scoring should be easy.

6.Balanced- It should cover all the aspects i.e it should have the questions dealing
with cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain.
7.Difficulty level- It should be according to the age and level of the students and it
should be neither too easy nor too hard and should consist of average level of
questions.

8.Discriminatory power- Test should be discriminatory in nature so that we can

classify the different students on basis of their level of performance, such as slow
learners, gifted students etc. so that teacher can give the students required inputs
accordingly.

TYPES OF ACHIEVEMENT TESTS