RESEARCH PROJECT

Pilot Testing

HOW TO PILOT A QUESTIONNAIRE?

If you’re conducting a large survey or questionnaire for a research study or paper, you need to pretest your
questionnaire on a smaller scale to make sure it’s going to work for your purposes. To pretest, or pilot, a questionnaire,
choose a representative sample of your large survey group and have them take the questionnaire. Then you can make
improvements where necessary based on their feedback.

Selecting the Sample

1) Identify your target group
Ideally, the sample you use to pilot your questionnaire should be members of the same group that you intend
to target for the full study. Define your target group in terms of age, gender, geographic location, and any factors
relevant to your study.
 Identify factors that will likely impact people’s ability to understand the instructions and the questions
themselves. For example, even if a respondent’s educational level has no relevance to your overall
study, it will impact on how they are able to read and comprehend the written language.
2) Choose 10-20 people to test
Your sample doesn’t have to be tremendously large for you to get a good sense of whether the questionnaire
and your methods of administering the questionnaire are going to be effective.
 The size of your sample for pilot testing may depend more on the diversity of your target group than
its size.
3) Look for similarly situated people
In some cases, it won’t be possible to pull a sample group directly from the actual target group for your
study. Look at the description of your target group and search for similar people.
 For example, suppose you have a questionnaire for factory workers in a specific geographic area, but
you don’t have the time or resources to go there for a pilot. You could have factory workers of similar
age and background who happen to work at a closer factory to take your pilot test.
4) Cover the range of your target group
Particularly if you’re conducting a large survey, you want to make sure each subgroup of your overall target
group has a chance to be part of the pilot. You want to make sure different subgroups still understand the questions
the same way.
 For example, if you’re testing 15-25 years old, you need at least one tester who is 15 or 16 years old,
and at least one who is 24 or 25. The rest of your pilot testers can fall in the middle.
5) Do as much as you can
You may not have the time or resources to do a larger pilot of your questionnaire before you start using it
for your study. When time or resources are limited, you should still try to go through the questionnaire with at least
one person.
 When you do the initial planning for your project, include a pilot in your scheduling as well as in your
budget. Even if you have limited resources to commit, completing a pilot could save your project a lot
of money by uncovering errors that would cause the ultimate questionnaire to fail.

Completing the Questionnaire

1) Train your data collectors
If you’re going to pilot a questionnaire, it’s important that the questionnaire is administered to the testers
the same way you intend to administer it to the target group.
2) Invite testers one at a time
When you pilot a questionnaire, you won’t have very many testers in your sample. If they take the
questionnaire separately you have the opportunity to focus on each individual.
 Individual testing also allows you to interview each sample group member immediately after they
complete your questionnaire, so they can talk about the experience while it’s still relatively fresh in
their minds.
3) Observe the testers while answering the questions
4) Ask testers to think out loud
 One of the things you’re looking for when you pilot a questionnaire is whether your respondents will be
able to follow the instructions you’ve provided. If testers think out loud, you can see where instructions are
confusing.
5) Solicit additional feedback
As soon as possible after each sample tester completes your questionnaire, sit down and have an interview with
them to find out more about their experience responding to your questionnaire.

Implementing the Result

1) Enter the pilot questionnaire answers
Once all of your pilot testers have completed your questionnaire, enter the data in a computer program or
on a spreadsheet exactly as you plan to do for the full study.
 This process also allows you to find any possible issues with the methods you plan to use to interpret
and analyze your data
2) Analyze the results
Part of the value of a pilot study is that you can see if the full project is worth doing. Based on your analysis
of the data collected in the pilot study, you can often figure out if it’s even worth offering the questionnaire to the
full target group.
 The results of even a small group of respondents can give you a good idea whether the questionnaire
will be effective at fulfilling the goals or intent of your overall study.
3) Identify basic formatting or data entry errors
Having a few people respond to your questionnaire may draw attention to errors that make a question
difficult to understand or to answer. These basic errors are relatively easy to fix.
4) Address logistical challenges
The pilot can reveal problems with the methods you intend to use to distribute, administer, or collect the
questionnaire. You have the opportunity to correct any inefficiencies that could cause significant problems once
you start the full study.
5) Correct problematic questions
As a result of the pilot, you may become aware of questions that are confusing or even offensive to
respondents. Doing the pilot gives you the opportunity to fix these questions so they’ll better achieve your
objectives.

References:
Bullen, P.B. (nd). How to pretest and pilot a survey questionnaire. Accessed January 24, 2020 from
www.tools4dev.org/resources/how-to-pretest-and-pilot-a-survey-questionnaire/
 RESEARCH PROJECT
Validation of Questionnaires and Pilot Testing Report

Research Title:

Group Members:

Strand: Group No.:

I. Validation of Questionnaires
A. Content of the Questionnaire
(discuss the content of the questionnaire and present the questionnaire itself)
B. Rubric Used for Validation
(present the rubric/s used for validation and discuss the experts who validate the questionnaires)
C. Comments and Suggestions of the Validators
(discuss the comments and suggestions of the validators)
D. Revised Questionnaire
(resent the revised questionnaire based on the comments and suggestions of the validators)
II. Pilot Testing Report
A. Pilot Testing Method
(discuss the sample you consider in conducting your pilot test and the pilot testing procedure you had
undertaken)
B. Results of the Pilot Testing
(discuss the comments of the sample in your pilot test and your analysis of questions based on the comments of
the pilot testing sample)
III. Final Content of the Questionnaire
(present the final content of the questionnaire based on the validation of questionnaire and the pilot testing)

Submitted to:

Mariane Diane S. Maputi

Research Adviser

Date of Submission: