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Guidance and counseling

Notes class. Achievement test data, in combination with other data, is used to help guidance counselors
plan students future educational programmes.
Types of Achievement Test
Achievement tests are of different kinds, each scoring a different purpose and providing different
information on students’ academic proficiency. These have been classified in various ways, and
understanding of which helps the counselor to understand their functions.
Formative and Summative Tests : Formative tests are used to measure progress made in knowledge
and skills before and during instruction. Summative achievement tests are given at the end of
course instruction, so as to assess the outcome of the instruction.
Progonostic tests : Readiness or prognostic tests are used to predict how well an individual is
expected to profit from training.

Diagnostic Test : Diagnostic achievement tests provide information on performance of the students
in different subjects and indicate their strengths and weakness in reading, arithmetic and language
usage.
Achievement test can be either criterion referenced (CRT) or norm referenced (NRT). The two tests
differ in their intended purposes, the way in which content is selected, and the scoring process
which defines how the test results must be interpreted. Norm Referenced Tests (NRTs) are designed
to highlight achievement differences between and among students and provide a rank order of
students across a continuum of achievement from high achievers to low achievers. These types of
tests are used to help counselors/ teachers to clarify students for remedial or gifted programmes.
Criterion-reference tests (CRTs) determine the strengths of the test taker i.e. what they can do and
what they know, not how they compare to others. They report how well students are doing relative
to a predetermined performance level on an specified set of educational goals or outcomes included
in the school curriculum.
An achievement test is designed to measure how much a person knows about a specific topic or
area such as math, geography or science. Achievement tests can be standardized test or teacher-
made tests.
Uses of Achievement Test Data
Data from standard achievement tests can be used for promoting, classifying, diagnosing or evaluating
students.
Counselors can also use the achievement tests for :
• Helping clients in decision making. A counselor can use the achievement test scores to initiate
decision on taking appropriate choice for a career.
• Assisting in diagnosis counselors can make use of achievement test data to diagnose problems
faced by the students in different subject areas. Accordingly corrective remediation can be
planned and carried out.
• Encouraging self-study. The student through achievement data, is able to gain insight into
his/her strengths and weakness in different subjects which can motivate him/her to put in the
desire effort.
• Achievement test are used as learning measures of (1) the amount of learning, (2) the rate of
learning (3) comparisons with others or with achievement of self in other areas, (4) level of
learning in sub-areas, and (5) strengths and workers in a subject matter area because of their
extensive use and relatively easy task of identifying appropriate context measures.
Achievement tests of both kinds i.e. standardized and teacher made tests are based on the content
taught and are considered valid. These are used to assess the level of overall proficiency to meet the
entry requirements to certain/programmes or the proficiency in a particular subject. The informal
classroom achievement test is suited to a select performance of a group of students. It is flexible and

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