Achievement test- Definition, objectives, functions, characteristics



Introduction

Achievement test is an important tool in school evaluation and has great significance in measuring instructional progress and progress of the students in the subject area.
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

Objectives

  • Identify and explain reasons for performing tests.
  • Understand testing terminology to communicate clearly with students and colleagues.
  • Evaluate a test’s validity and reliability.
  • Select appropriate tests.
  • Administer test protocols properly and safely.

Functions of test

  • It provides basis for promotion to the next grade.
  • To find out where each student stands in various academic areas.
  • It helps in determination about the placement of the students in a particular section.
  • To motivate the students before a new assignment has taken up.
  • To know effectively the student is performing in theory as well as in clinical areas.
  • To expose pupil’s difficulties which the teacher can help them to solve.

Characteristics of a good test

Test preparation activities which promote quality, long-term learning are appropriate, even essential. Good test-taking skills and appropriate content learning can reduce the likelihood that extraneous factors will influence students’ test scores. The various characteristics of a good test are:
  • It can be tried out and selected on the basis of its difficulty level and discriminating power.
  • Directly related to the educational objectives.
  • It should possess description of measure behavior in realistic and practical terms.
  • Contains a sufficient number of test items for each measured behavior; concerned with important and useful matter; comprehensive, brief, precise and clear.
  • It should be divided into different knowledge and skills according to behavior to be measured.
  • Standardized the items and made instructions clear so that different users can utilize it.
  • Rules and norms have to be developed so that various age groups can use at various levels.
  • It provides equivalent and comparable forms of the test.
  • A test manual has to be prepared, which can act as a guide for administering and scoring.

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