Page 201 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Unit 16 : Factors Influencing Test Scores : Nature of Test, Psychological Factors and Environmental Factors

can put down on paper on a certain day within a limited time frame. That is all it is : an Notes
indication. There are many additional factors, some of which are more important, that a teacher
must consider before assigning a mark for a report card, or deciding on the appropriate placement
for a student for the upcoming term.
The quality of a student’s daily work is important as well as his marks on unit tests and term
tests. Is his Contribution to projects as well done as that of his peers ? Is he responsible about
completing Homework assignments ? Does he have a positive attitude toward school and
education?

There are many factors which can influence the results of standardized tests.

Most people are capable of doing something, but they don’t study properly. They
equate studying during commercials with a lengthy study session, or they believe that
“they know it” simply because they can answer the questions with unlimited time and
access to the material.

16.2 Nature of Test

Marks awarded by the teachers or examiners on a given test are the “test scores’ on whose basis
varied decisions are taken about the students performance, teaching effectiveness and perfor-
mance standards. In fact the students’ test score on an examination depends on many factors of
course one of these is student’s knoweldge, understanding or ability in the subject-matter of
examination, which determines the student’s final mark. This factor influence the student’s own
Score (not of others) but there are other factors that influence score of all students, more or less
equally. These are given below :
(i) Difficulty level of Examination : It is not possible to judge the exact difficulty level of an
examination question at the time of its Construction. It may turn out to be very difficult
when hardly a few students pass. Should we fail the whole class ? No if it turns out to be too
easy that more than 75% of students get distinction marks. Should then every one get high
or very high scores ? No. some adjustment has to be made while assigning the final marks.
(ii) Nature of group tested : In a particular school the level of students may be high compared
with that of students from another school. This would affect the difficulty level of a question
for a particular group of students.
(iii) Instructional effectiveness : Level of teaching may very from one school to another.
Accordingly the teaching impact on students learning would also vary, which in turn may
affect the difficulty level of an examination from school to school.
(iv) Miscalculation of time limit : If the teacher or the paper setter makes a wrong guess about
the total time required to attempt the questions, he may give more questions than required
for students in a give span of time. the students may not be able to attempt all questions
within the time limit (miscalculated or estimated)
In that case should the marks of all students be lowered just because the teacher or paper
setter made a wrong guess ? cortainly not.
(v) Sampling inadequacies : To what extent the questions set Cover adequately the prescribed
Course Content by the teacher or paper setter, effecting the marks especially in essay-type
questions, which usually are loss in number and do not ensure good coverae ? Thus chance
of inadequate Converage ? Thus chance of inadequate coverage in testing or even in teaching
does affect the row score of students, which ultimately effects many decisions.

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