Rules and Regulations Governing Essay Tests
By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)
Education
and
tests go hand in hand very often. As always, tests play an essential role in
formulating the education system of a nation. There are many types of tests in
exam papers, such as placement tests, and the question items of these tests
usually include at least one essay question. The essay tests represent a very
flexible format that can potentially measure any skill that is accessible
using other written test formats. This test is directly able to determine
higher cognitive skills with the ability to communicate ideas in writing. The
most notable characteristic of essay tests is the freedom of response they
provide, that is to say, creating, organizing, integrating, and expressing the
behaviours which call for the production and synthesis of ideas. The freedom
of the response permitted by essay tests varies considerably from the range of
giving a brief and precise response to determining the form and scope of the
answer. Hence, essay tests are subdivided into two types:
a) Restricted-response questions
For example,
Describe the reading strategies of a
book.
b) Extended-response questions
For instance,
Write an essay on ``Books for All’.
In the restricted-response item of the
essay question, the student is more limited and told specifically the context
that his answer is to take. The boundaries of the subject matter to be considered
are commonly narrowly defined by the problem, also indicated by such words as
`List’, `Define’, and `Give reasons’. Such questions can be prepared more
easily, related more directly to specific learning outcomes at the
comprehension, application or analysis levels and scored very quickly. However,
they provide little opportunity for the student to show his ability to
organize, integrate and develop essentially new patterns of response. These are
of relatively little value for measuring outcomes at the synthesis and
evaluation levels.
However, in the extended-response item
of the essay question, virtually no bounds are placed on the student as to the
points for discussion and the type of organization in use. The student must be
given sufficient freedom to demonstrate the skills of synthesis and evaluation.
Those questions allow the student to express his ability to call upon and
evaluate factual knowledge as well as organize and present his ideas in a
logical, coherent fashion. On the other hand, their biggest problem is to
evaluate the answers with sufficient reliability to give a useful meaning to
learning.
Essay tests have both advantages and
limitations over question items written in other formats. Essay tests allow for
direct measurement of more types of skills, examine the student’s ability to
communicate ideas in writing and require the student to supply the response
instead of selecting the responses provided by the item. In spite of this,
essay tests offer a less adequate sampling of the content and limited course
coverage, as usual. Their scoring is less reliable in that due to the
subjective aspect of marking essay tests, scores assigned to a given set of
students’ responses are often inconsistent. Essay tests are also a consuming
task to score. Even if fairly detailed scoring procedures are followed, and
student’s responses are graded by more than one reader, the amount of time required
for scoring essay tests will increase further. Compared with objective tests,
essay tests are inefficient for knowledge outcomes. The preparation of good
items in essay tests is difficult. Not only their scoring but also their
writing ability in one’s own ideas is no easy task, where bluffing is made
possible rather than guessing.
Consequently, when constructing essay
questions, use questions to measure complex learning outcomes only; relate
questions as directly as possible to the learning outcomes being measured;
formulate questions that present a clear task to the student; do not permit
students a choice among optional questions unless the learning outcomes require
it; provide ample time for answering, suggesting a time limit in each question;
use a relatively large number of questions requiring short answers rather
than just a few questions involving long answers; adapt the length of the
response as well as the complexity of the question and answer to the maturity
level of the student; use the novel type of question whenever feasible; write a
model answer as well as prepare a scoring key to the question; and decide in
advance what factors will be considered in evaluating an essay question.
In order to minimize the subjectivity
of scoring essay tests, evaluate the answer to essay questions in terms of the
learning outcomes being measured; score restricted-response answers by the
point method using a model answer as a guide; grade extended-response answers
by the rating method, using the defined criterion as a guide; evaluate all of
the students’ answers to one question before proceeding to next question;
evaluate answers to essay questions without knowing the identity of the
writer; whenever possible have two or more persons to grade each other; and
finally, use the analytical method or the global method for scoring essay
questions.
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