TEST CONSTRUCTION.

The construction of the written test is a careful work that should be planned response aspects such as the following:

The purpose. Written test can be used, on the one hand to collect information to judge the student on certain knowledge, skills or skills domain: diagnose weaknesses of students in certain areas or content of the subject or to assign ratings; on the other hand, to give feedback the teaching process in terms of failures or limitations of students or at a broader level, review the quality of instruction offering learners and retrieved learning.

Planning. Test planning consider the selection of the contents in accordance with the objectives developed in class, the elaboration of the table specifications and table balancing, the use of different types (reagents) items that conform to the objectives, the nature of the group to consider individual differences, test extension and the time available for its implementation (40 to 80 minutes).

When planning testing is very important the preparation of specifications and balancing, table table so then includes a section with the respective explanation of this stage of the written test construction:

Table of specification

A table of specifications represents how the test will be designed, is a prior plan it or an outline of the scope and emphasis of the contents and objectives seen in class and academic period.

To develop a table of specifications, the teaching examiner, depending on the contents and objectives that will be discussed in the written test and the number of lessons, determines the percentage of these and knowledge at the preset level (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, etc.).

Table of balancing

Table balancing development leads teachers to determine a weighting for each of the objectives or contents included in the test, depending on the amount of lessons. It involves determining the amount and type of items by objective and content will be considered; specify the criterion of balancing which will be used; establish the correspondence between the weighting of the themes and scores of items.

Table balancing in the box to the number of lessons, denotes precisely by the time devoted to each content or purpose, the relevance these have on the subject, the difficulty, the density that has content, the number of class hours used for practice. Note an example of balancing table: