What is the Achievement test?

An achievement test is a means to test developed skills or knowledge.

According to N.M. Downie, “Any test that measures a person's achievement or achievement after training or education is called a successful test. It helps the student to move on to the next class. "

From a teacher's point of view, academic performance tests can be considered a tool to evaluate school children and indicate students' success rate. It gives an idea of what a person has achieved by evaluating his abilities.

Purpose of Achievement Test

The achievement test aims to measure some aspects of the student's intellectual abilities in a subject.

Types of Achievement Test

The most common type of achievement test is the standardized test. The aim is to measure the skills and knowledge learned at a given level. This is done through planned instructions such as training or classroom instruction. Achievement tests pertain to the academic domain where teachers set the test to evaluate students’ grasping of the subject.

Broadly, based on quality, achievement tests can be grouped into two categories –standardized tests and classroom tests.

Classroom Tests - for formative or summative assessment
Standardized tests – to meet multiple objectives, including evaluation

Examples of achievement tests:
The small-scale achievement tests that are usually administered in schools include spelling tests, map quizzes, periodic arithmetic, etc., to measure how well each student can demonstrate their knowledge of a particular academic subject or skill.

Design Aspects of Achievement Test

Design - Steps to create an achievement test for a school subject.

The following two questions provide a way to build an achievement test.

What is to be measured? -- This includes some of the objectives that we can use to bring about acceptable changes seen in the behavior of students while teaching.
How is it measured? -- This includes how to create tools that measure students' abilities.

Standardization - It is a method of high-quality and in-depth assessment of the subject. The standardization test stipulates guidelines for managing and categorizing the test for various groups of students and administered for a larger sample.

This phase ensures the establishment of reliability, validity, and norms.

Reliability is tested, for example, by the split-half method.
The valid test is highly reliable. Validity is measured in specific methods: face, content, concurrent and approximate validity methods.
Criteria in the age, category, percentile, and standard score of the population in the sample are benchmarked for their level of results.

Developing Achievement Test

The following steps are usually followed when developing an achievement test:

[1] Planning of test

Designing is the key step in constructing a test. The exam designers should take care when planning and testing success. They should remember what kind of questions to pose and how they are used. He has to decide the weightage for the various objectives and units of the course.

The following points help the exam setter to design the test methodically.

Identify objectives
Measuring the content coverage
Allocation of time
Allocation of maximum marks
Decide to include or not multiple-choice questions
Focus on each topic and area in the questions that belong

[2] Preparation of a design for the test

The key elements to consider in design for testing are:

Weightage to objectives -- Proficiency is defined as the standard by which a student acquires grade-appropriate knowledge and skills up to the test stage. Good teaching methods are expected to increase the amount of learning in the school year, thus increasing achievement scores, and producing more "proficient" students than ever before.
Weightage to content -- Classification of achievement tests based on content or subject, language tests, reading tests, spelling tests etc., and different forms like an oral test.
Weightage to form of questions -- Achievement test items can be essay type questions or short answer questions or objective type questions or a combination of all these types.
Weightage to difficulty level -- The level of rigidity has to be considered while writing the object. It is advisable to sort the questions according to their level of difficulty.

Sample illustrations of Weightage Tables:

A. Content Weightage

Sl. No.	Subject	Marks	Percentage (%)
1	Part-1	8	40%
2	Part-2	12	60%
Total		20	100%

B. Objectives Weightage

Sl. No.	Objectives	Marks	Percentage (%)
1	Knowledge based	8	40%
2	Understanding / conceptual	6	30%
3	Application specific	2	10%
4	Skill based	4	20%
Total		20	100%

C. Form of Questions Weightage

Sl. No.	Form of Questions	Marks	Percentage (%)
1	Easy Types	4	20%
2	Short Answer Types	10	50%
3	Very Short Answer Types	4	20%
4	Objective Types	2	10%
Total		20	100%

D. Difficulty Level Weightage

Sl. No.	Difficulty Level	Marks	Percentage (%)
1	Easy Level	6	30%
2	Average Level	10	50%
3	Difficult Level	4	20%
Total		20	100%

[3] Preparing Blueprint

Creating a blueprint after the design is done the final step in planning the exam. It is a three-dimensional table in which the objectives, content and nature of the questions are given. The test creator puts a variety of questions in a standard blueprint and assigns them points over time.

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[4] Writing of Items

When writing test items for achievement test, authors usually start with a list of content standards --either written by content experts or in standard form, that specify exactly what students are expected to learn in a given school year. The paper setter writes the item according to the blueprint and verifies to ensure all questions can be answered within the given time.

Preparing initial draft

Drafting of preliminary test draft is done in three steps, as below.

Item writing:

It is important to step into the preliminary draft. The blueprints serve as guidelines for drafting.

The following points should be kept in mind by the test conductor while writing the item for the preliminary draft.

Each item has the same idea.
Questions are clear and made simple for easy understanding.
No question is repeated.
Items are arranged from simple to complex.
Subjective questions are avoided.

Item editing:

The language teachers and assessment experts receive and edit the item for adhering to language and achievement levels.

Finalize draft

In the final draft, the questions are arranged in a simple, average, and difficult order. This approach comforts the students. When the test is properly designed with the help of principles, the purpose of the test will be clear.

[5] Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme

Scoring Key - For objective type items where the answers are in the form of some letters or other symbols, a scoring key is created.

Marking Scheme - In the case of short answers and essay type questions, a marking plan is created.

When creating a marking scheme, the examiner should list the accumulated value points and determine the points assigned to each value point.

[6] Analysis

The constructor examines the feedback and recommendations given by the defendants for each test item, analyzing the questions. This step helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of the test, match the question paper and blueprint and determine the validity of the test content.

Finally, you can consider achievement test as an important process for evaluating set goals and achievements. When you want to evaluate a student, you are going to create a tool that measures a person's understanding and mastery of a subject. This is best done with meticulously analyzed success tests that reveal gaps in knowledge that allow for improvement.

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