Unit 3: Testing

Sequence: Analysis of a test

1. What is the purpose of the test?

The test is mainly focused on assessing the students progress in grammar and
comprehension (reading and listening). It is designed as a progress achievement test
because its purpose is to measure the improvement of each student by noticing in
which areas he/she is having struggle or enhancement.

2. Does is represent direct or indirect testing (or a mixture of both)?

It represents direct testing considering that the student has to read and then answer
the given questions (immediate prompting leads to adjacent results).
3. Are the items discrete point or integrative (or a mixture of both)?
Items are both, discrete and integrative. By reason that some exercises central point
was only one element (only one possible and correct answer), and in other areas the
students needed to communicate their own feelings/points of views and ideas. Some
exercises are integrative due to the fact that they encompass diverse skills in order
to arrive to an accurate answer.
Discrete: I, II,IV, V
Integrative: III, VI, VII
4. Which items are objective, and which are subjective? Can you order the
subjective items according to degree of subjectivity?
Objective Items /exercises: I, II, III, IV, V, VII (1.2.5.7.3.4)
Subjective Items/exercises: number VI writing
6. Does the test measure communicative abilities? Would you describe it as a
communicative test? Justify your answers.
Not in a high degree, due to the fact that in most of the tasks, learners have to
complete information (that it is already given). Nearly all the exam focuses on

grammar, and this by itself does not guarantee that students will be able to
communicate. The test only measures communicative abilities in a very low
percentage because of that specific exercise (number 7, and it can be labeled as a
real life situation A Christmas Family Celebration); a teacher can get to general
conclusions by measuring the use of structural forms in exercise number seven.
5. Is the test norm- referenced or criterion-referenced?
Criterion referenced, because it is testing the learners knowledge without
comparing it to that of others.
7. What relationship is there between the answers of question 6 and the answers
to the other questions?
Exercise six gives students tools to transmit freely written sentences, however they
are given a certain pattern (usage of would and should) that they have to follow.
Furthermore, in other exercises they do not have the same opportunity that is to say,
to express themselves, because the correct answer is one specifically.