This article defines testwiseness as a subjects capacity to utilize the characteristics and formats of the test andor the test taking situation to receive a high score. Testwiseness is a skill that permits a testtaker to utilize the characteristics and forms of tests and or testtaking situation to receive a high score. Multiple choice questions the most general alternative is often the correct one. This apparently isnt so well known in the literature, so id thought id share it here. The millman taxonomy defines test wiseness and breaks it down into two major areaselements either independent or dependent of the test constructor or purpose. Serve as warning signal of teachinglearning problems. Symonds northwest missouri state university the purpose of this paper is to discuss ideas related to test preparation. Teacher made tests frequently exhibit tw cues due to the teachers unfamiliarity. Implications for test construction and teaching test taking skills are discussed. Test manual is written that provides clear directions for administration, scoring and information about test characteristics and its interpretation. Multiple choice question and quiz tips centre for teaching. This article defines test wiseness as a subjects capacity to utilize the characteristics and formats of the test andor the test taking situation to receive a high score. Discourse synthesis, integrated writing, selfregulatory, test wiseness, writing strategy introduction integrated writing tasks have been employed frequently for assessing academic writing ability in standard proficiency exams recently.
Susceptibility to test wiseness and internal consistency reliability. Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in testwiseness strategies and testtaking strategies used by testtakers in responding to test tasks. Teacher made tests frequently exhibit tw cues due to the teachers. An examination of testwiseness in the cognitive test.
Nature and practice of test wiseness the case of kenyan. Increasing teacher candidate test wiseness, selfefficacy and content knowledge in the era of accountability timothy j. Educational and psychological measurement, 592, 234247. The movement to more accountability has lead teachers, students, and parents to better understand that critical thinking skills, problemsolving abilities, and connecting and building off. The most pertinent of this research to the area of employment testing and the legal defensibility of tests is research which has found evidence that testwiseness may be a source of additional variance in test scores and a. But if you are testwise, you may know about one smaller and one larger. The level of testwiseness for the students of arts and. Testwiseness exemplary practice series kean, michael h. Aly anwar amer college of education sultanate of oman. Frequency of test wiseness strategies in pbt test wiseness strategy before answe ring while answe ring after answe ring f perce nt 1. Testwiseness is regarded as an important factor influencing the outcome of multiplechoice tests. A total of 30 teachers and 180 students were selected to participate in the research.
The influence of test wiseness upon performance of high school students on school leaving examinations. A coding scheme based on a published classification of testwiseness strategies was developed and. Advantages of teaching to the test include teaching the skills and content areas that will be represented on a test 4, 7, the increased revision and development of aligned curriculum maps 3, the need to truly determine whether or not teachers are. Teaching test familiarity skills should be independent of subject matter being tested. The earliest and most wellknown definition of testwiseness comes from the work. There is a positive side to this emphasis on tests, when they take the form of performance. Conclusions about both teaching methods and assessment in higher education are drawn from this discussion. Findings from existing studies show that people with testwiseness knowledge get better results in a multiplechoice test than people without this knowledge. Students who are test wise can outperform students of equal ability who lack test wiseness. Student use of testwiseness strategies in solving multiple. The principles of test wiseness can be taught using any of a variety.
The most frequent type of cue was length of option, followed by specific determiners. Guessing, in this context, means random guessing, essentially flipping a coin and choosing an answer. Pdf eflesl testwiseness and testtaking strategies eric. Top 4 characteristics of a good test your article library. Researchbased test preparation instruction better test scores. Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in test wiseness strategies and test taking strategies used by test takers in responding to test tasks. Teacher made tests frequently exhibit tw cues due to the teachers unfamiliarity with.
Toefl practice test b educational testing service, 1995. Test wiseness is a skill that permits a test taker to utilize the characteristics and forms of tests and or test taking situation to receive a high score. The findings also lend weight to the argument that tw is not a general ability but rather that performance on tw items is cuespecific. Wall, britton johnson missouri western state university matthew l. The washback effect is the outcome of a test or an examination which results either in positive or in a negative way. Nature and practice of test wiseness the case of kenyan schools.
If you are designing a multiplechoice or truefalse quiz to assess students knowledge and mastery of some material, there is a good chance that part of what you are assessing is not knowledge of the content but rather how good students are at taking tests testwiseness. It is therefore useful to consider pacing as a trajectory that may be linearly or nonlinearly decreasing over the course of the examination. Pdf this chapter takes a close look at just what strategic competence means with. Development and validation of a scale to measure testwiseness in. The construct of testwiseness tw has a relatively short history in educational research.
Cultural orientation and job related factors in the design of multiple choice test questions personnel assessment monographs is published by the assessment ccuncit of the international personnel management association ipmaac. Strategies for enhancing your performance in assessment. Implications for test construction and teaching testtaking skills are discussed. Gibb 1964 defined testwiseness tw as the ability to respond. Developing student testwiseness 1 research shows there is a positive relationship between test performance and skill in taking tests2 strategies for developing student testwiseness use smart strategies. The role of classroom assessment in teaching and learning.
A set of 5 strategies and quick tips from the cvm office of teaching and learning to help you prepare for and take exams. Test is administered to a larger samplethis becomes the norming group which subsequent scores will be compared. An empirical comparison of threeand fourchoice items and tests. Faculty of education, najran university, kingdom of saudi arabia. Selfgoverning functions sucha sconfidence,persistence,test wiseness, test anxiety, and cognitive or personal characteristics may explain examinee testtaking behaviors when taking a test. The following table shows the strategies in an ascending order of their frequency. Test wiseness is logically independent of the examinees knowledge of the subject. Findings from existing studies show that people with test wiseness knowledge get better results in a multiplechoice test than people without this knowledge. Test wiseness strategies used by 11 general chemistry students as they answered a 15item multiplechoice examination were investigated using a thinkaloud technique. Let parents know about upcoming tests and what they can do to encourage their childrens performance. Testtaking strategies originated from the concept of testwiseness which is defined as ones capacity for using test characteristics and formats andor testtaking situations to raise test scores m illman et al. Teaching to the test has also shown a shift in mindset from teachercentered to studentcentered learning 3.
Test wiseness 3 type of applied test affect in the acquisition of test wiseness skills 4 questions opacity limit the individuals ability to use the test wiseness skills 3. Pdf test wiseness strategies elaheh tavakoli academia. In 78% kathy carter is assistunt projessor in the division of teaching avid teacher educu. The nature and extent of testwiseness cues in seventh and. Test wiseness is regarded as an important factor influencing the outcome of multiplechoice tests.
The principles of testwiseness can be taught using any of a variety. Millman 1969 defined testwiseness as a subjects capacity to utilize the characteristics and formats of the test andor the testtaking situation to receive a high score. Developing student student testwiseness testwiseness1. Similar to coaching, teaching to the test implies that teachers instructions focus on actual test items with an aim to improve students test scores, or simply item. Test wiseness international personnel assessment council. Discourse synthesis, integrated writing, selfregulatory, testwiseness, writing strategy introduction integrated writing tasks have been employed frequently for assessing academic writing ability in standard proficiency exams recently.
A closer look at chinese efl learners testwiseness. Try to work out an answer before looking at the options. This study aimed to identify the level of using testwiseness strategies for the. Pdf eflesl testwiseness and testtaking strategies aly. Practice of the students in taking sophisticated tests increases the test reliability. More specifically, millman, bishop, and ebel 1965, p. But when in a group all the students do not have same level of test wiseness, it leads to greater measurement errors. A closer look at chinese efl learners testwiseness strategies in reading test.
Experience of test taking also affect the reliability of test scores. This short document outlines strategies for approaching multiple choice tests. Iranian efl learners use of selfregulatory, testwiseness. Increasing teacher candidate testwiseness, selfefficacy and content knowledge in the era of accountability timothy j. Further, it seems that test wiseness can be trained. The material discussed in the taxonomy applies to teachermadetests and to standardized tests. There is an enormous difference between teaching testtaking strategies and teaching to the test. Oct 11, 2007 if you are designing a multiplechoice or truefalse quiz to assess students knowledge and mastery of some material, there is a good chance that part of what you are assessing is not knowledge of the content but rather how good students are at taking tests testwiseness. Discourage subject matter drill and practice solely for the test. Although these strategies are extensively studied in l1 literature, they are noticeably neglected in eflesl testing literature. Stem or question narrow openings of the eyelids, deep set eyes, a shortened distance between the nose and upper lip, and a thin upper lip in a young child are typical of alternatives or.
To make the study more meaningful for reallife teaching. Jan 28, 2015 test wiseness tw has been defined as the ability to respond advantageously to multiplechoice items containing extraneous clues and, therefore, to obtain credit without knowledge of the subject matter being tested. A coding scheme based on a published classification of test wiseness strategies was developed and transcripts were coded using the scheme. Vocabulary multiple choice questions consist of a stem or question, and alternatives or options including the correct response and incorrect distractors. The nature and extent of testwiseness cues in seventh. Her specializations are, research on teacher comprehension and classroom processes. Testwiseness is logically independent of the examinees knowledge of the subject.
Educational and psychological measurement, 25 3, 707726. Introduction test wiseness tw has been defined as the ability to respond. Similar to coaching, teaching to the test implies that teachers instructions focus on actual test items with an aim to improve students test scores, or simply itemteaching. In addition, bajtelsmit 1975 and woodley 1973 were able to teach adults how to effectively use testwiseness strategies on multiple choice tests. Kathy carter is assistant professor in the division of teaching avid teacher education, college of education, university of arizona, tucson, az 85721. Researchers conceptualizing effective teaching did not assign a significant role to assessment as part of the learning process. Testwiseness strategies used by 11 general chemistry students as they answered a 15item multiplechoice examination were investigated using a thinkaloud technique.
On how testwiseness and acceptance reluctance influence the. Given the purpose of the test, correctly determine the best type of test for. The millman taxonomy defines testwiseness and breaks it down into two major areaselements either independent or dependent of the test constructor or purpose. Descriptive survey design was intended to produce statistical information about aspects of test wiseness that may interest policy makers and educators. Testwiseness clues can help you to identify the correct answer on objective type tests when you are having difficult selecting an answer.
Although these strategies are extensively studied in l1 literature, they. This is an issue of validity because the score on a test should be a reflection of the level of the trait that the test is designed to measure knowledge, skill, understanding not a reflection of a general ability to do well on poorly made tests. Symonds northwest missouri state university the purpose of. Eflesl testwiseness and testtaking strategies eric. The choice c item fault item 1 was written to exemplify the problem of having most correct answers keyed to choice c. Wiseness for teachers and students carter, kathy 19861201 00. Strategies in responding to the new toefl reading tasks. Originally suggested as a possible effector of reliability thorndike. It is a subjects capacity to utilize the characteristics and formats of test andor testtaking situations to receive a high score hyde 1981, 3. And in almost every class, students ask the perennial question. Test is revised based on the feedback from this test administration.
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