category system”. The phrase “systematic procedure” indicates that a test is constructed, administered, scored and described according to prescribed rules.
The term behavior implies that a test measures the responses a person makes to the test items. Tests do not measure a person directly but rather they infer
his characteristics from his responses to test items. We do not observe all behavior but only a sample of behavior. A test contains only a sample of all
possible items. The test results are described with the aid of measurement scales.
3
Based on the definitions above, the writer can conclude that a test is an instrument
which is administered to measure students’ responses to the test items.
2. Types of Test
Test can be categorized according to the types of information they provide. This categorization will prove useful both in deciding whether an
existing test is suitable for a particular purpose and in writing appropriate new tests where these are necessary.
4
Test can be classified based on its purpose and based on its test maker.
a. Based on its purpose
1 Aptitude Test
An aptitude test is primarily designed to predict success in some future learning activity. It is generally given before the student begins
language study, and may be used to select students for a language course or to place students in section appropriate to their ability.
There are some information provided by aptitude test that the test is useful in determining learning readiness, individualizing instruction,
organizing classroom groups, identifying underachievers, diagnosing
3
H.J.X. Fernandes, Testing and Measurement, Jakarta: National Educational Planning, Evaluation and Curriculum Development, 1984, p.1.
4
Arthur Hughes, Testing for Language Teachers, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.5.
learning problems and helping students with their educational and vocational plans.
Aptitude tests are often used in selecting individuals for jobs, for admission to training program, for scholarship, and for many other
purposes. Sometimes aptitude tests are used for classifying individuals, as when students are assigned to different ability-grouped sections of
the same course.
5
2 Achievement Test
Achievement tests measure what a person has learnt during a course of instruction. It is given at the end of the course. The content of
achievement tests is generally based on the course of syllabus or the course textbook.
Achievement test is designed to indicate degree of success in some past learning activity. This purpose of achievement test is obviously
different with the purpose of aptitude test, where the aptitude test is designed to predict success in some future learning activity. A
distinction between these two tests is made in terms of the use of the results rather than of the qualities of the test themselves.
6
Assessment and evaluation are term often used in connection with achievement testing. The purpose of the testing is for assessing present
attainment. With achievement tests, we are trying to measure students’ present attainment.
7
A common distinction is that achievement tests measure what a student has learned, and aptitude tests measure the
ability to learn new tasks.
8
5
Howard B. Lyman, Test Scores and What They Mean, Singapore: Allyn Bacon, 1998, p.22.
6
Drs. Wilmar Tinambunan, Evaluation of Student Achievement, Jakarta: Depdikbud, 1998, p.7.
7
Howard B. Lyman, Test Score……….., p. 22
8
Robert L. Linn, Norman E. Gronlund, Measurement and Assessment in Teaching, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995, p. 391-392.
