Page 98 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes

One important implication of having sections on content basis is that you can impose
restrictions on the number of questions to be attempted from each section, thereby
ensuring better sampling of the content.

(v) Scheme of Options
If no option is provided and all questions are compulsory, comparability of students’ marks
improves. If free option is provided, comparability of students’ scores is not possible because
different students attempt different combinations of questions. Moreover, it leads to selective
teaching and selective learning. Provision of internal balanced options of ’This OR This’
type ensures more coverage of syllabus, besides opening opportunities to students to
demonstrate their best. Therefore the scheme of options must be carefully decided while
designing the question papers.
(vi) Medium of Testing
Decisions about medium of testing and number of versions to be developed has also to be
taken before commencing to write the questions. Framing of questions directly in a language
and getting them translated from questions written in another language is quite different.
Validity of many questions is lost during their translation from English to other languages.
Unless the framer of the question is cognizant of this fact during construction of questions
some good questions that cannot be properly translated into another language have to be
sacrificed at the altar of validity of the question.

8.1.3 Coverage of Examination Syllabus
The syllabus is to be delineated into convenient units of testing, neither too big nor too small.
Small units may hinder inclusion of essay-type questions, whereas bigger units may lead to
neglect of some topics while framing the questions. Each of these units is given proportional
weightage, depending upon the length of each unit in the text-book, importance of the topic and
the density of content elements in each unit. A table may be prepared representing the weightages
to various units, say 8 in all.
Table 1 : Showing weightage to different units

Units of syllabus Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit 7 Unit 8 Total

Marks allotted 4 12 8 20 12 24 10 10 100
This table indicates that :
(i) questions are to be set on all units of the syllabus;
(ii) questions are to be set in terms of proportional marks allotted to different units; and
(iii) adequate coverage of syllabus is ensured by proper sampling of content and giving
proportionate weightage to different units of syllabus.
For languages the broad units may be orthography, structures, vocabulary and composition,
which may similarly be given proportionate weightage for a particular examination. Similar
type of table can be prepared by teachers for their annual examination or pre-board examination,
usually conducted by the schools. This table is a step towards ensuring adequate sampling of
content for proper coverage of examination syllabus to take care of content validity of the test,
i.e. the question paper.

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