e s u l t s t o a s s e s s c o r p o r a t e t r a i n i n g , m u l t i p l e c h o i c e , t r u e o r

IS TAKING TEST LIKE BUYING LOTTERY? Millions of people around the world are putting their chances in winning big amounts of money. A lot of people want to be rich in an instant. Most frequent buyers of lottery tickets allot a specified amount of money everyday to place their bets on their selected lucky numbers. However, Classroom tests are routinely designed and administered by teachers to assess students learned capabilities, and output from classroom tests are often used to support decisionmaking, such as in giving grades to students or assigning students to remedial classes. Is taking test like buying lottery? in order to make easy to answer the question, i would like to describe briefly about test and lottery. What is a Test? Classrooms are busy places. Every day in every classroom, teachers make decision about their pupil's behaviour, the success of their instruction, and the classroom climate. Classroom decision should be reflective, not based upon the whim of teachers. The decision of teachers made were based upon many different kinds of evidence that they can collect over time. The process of collecting, synthesizing, and interpreting information to aid in decision making is called assessment. Tests are only one of the many types of assessment information teachers. A test is a formal, systematic, usually paper-and-pencil procedure used to gather information about pupils' behavior. Tests typically consist of a set of questionadministered during a fixed periode of time under reasonably comparable conditions for all students. Tests are powerful educational tools that serve and help teachers evaluate students and assess whether they are learning what the teachers are expecting them to learn, and designed tests serve to motivate and help students structure their academic efforts. The Purposes of Test Test is a particular type of assessment. The teachers assess the students because they are required to make a broad range of decisions in their clasrooms. However, assessment aids the teachers to diagnosis of students problem. Teachers are constantly on the lookout for pupils who are having learning, emotional, or social problems in the classroom. Teachers try to identify these problems, document their frequently, understand their basis, and select remedial activities for their students. Assessment of the students with special needs has traditionally been used to identify students characteristics, determine appropriate placement of students, evaluate students progress, and predict future academic and nonacademic needs of students.

Information gathered during this assessment process has been used primarily for the purpose of placement, instruction, and reporting. Although the same data can be used for different purposes, the intended use often influences measurement choice and evaluation strategies. A final, often overlooked purpose for assessment is to establish and maintain the social equilibrium of the classroom. Classrooms are complex social settings where people interect with one another in a multitude of ways. For classrooms to become positive social and learning enviroments, disipline, and cooperation must be present. The task of promotinglearning and maintaining order are closely related; some amountbof orderliness is needed if instruction is to be successful. By viewing classrooms as social systems in which formal instruction is only one of the activities taking place and by viewing teacjers as assessors who use different kinds of information to make many kinds of decisions. It is possible to classify classroom assessment into three general types (Airasian, 1980) : 1. Official Assessment, decisions such as grading, grouping, assessing achivement, interpreting standardized test score, meeting with parents, identifying pupils for special needs placement, making promotion recommendations are part of responsibilities a teacher assumes as an employee of a school system. 2. Instructional Assessment, decisons about what will be taught, how and when it will be taught, what materials will be used, how a lesson is progressing, and what changes in planned activities must be made because of pupils' reaction to instruction. 3. Sizing-Up Assessment, is used by teachers early in the school year to determine their pupils' social, academic, and behavioral characteristics. Types of Test Questions Tests are composed of series of short, usually unrelated communications called questions, or items. Each question must be brief and set a clear problem for the pupils to think about. The are two basic types of paper-and-pencil test questions: selection items and supply items (Airasian, 1994). Selection items are those in which a pupil selects the correct answer from among a number of options presented, while supply items are those in which the pupil supplies or constructs his or her own answer. Within the general category of selsction items are multiple-choice items, true/false items, fillin-the-blank, short-answer questions, and essay questions. Multiple-Choice Items Multiple-choice items consist of a stem, which presents the problem or question to the pupil and a set of options, or choices, from which the pupil selects an answer. The multiple-choiceformat is widely used in achievemnet tests of all types, primarily to assess learning outcame at the recall and comprehension levels. True/False Items

The true-false format consist of statement which pupil muast classify into one of two respone categories. The categories may be true-false, yes-no, correct-incorrect, or fact-opinion. True-false items are used mainly for assessing recall and comprehension behaviors, although it can be used to assess higher level one. Fill-in-the-Blank Fill-in-the-blank items are sentences with key words missing. student must fill in the missing word or phrase, and student may be given a list of answer words to choose from. Short-Answer Questions Each presents the pupil with a question to answer. The short-answer format presents the problems with a direct question. Essay Questions Essay questions give pupils the greatest opportunity to construct their own responses. Pupils have freedom to decide how to approach the question, what ideas to include, how their points will be organized, and what conclusion that they will draw. Essay questions are most useful for assessing higher level cognitive processes like analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. Characteristics of Test In order to be of real value in decision-making for the teachers, classroom tests must possess two important characteristics, namely: validity and reliability. Validity and reliability are two quality indicators for classroom tests. Validity refers to the degree to which a test is measuring what it is supposed to measure, while reliability is an indication of the consistency between two measures of the same test. A test may be highly reliable but not necessarily valid, but a highly valid test is usually reliable. Types of Validity There are two types of validity that are most relevant to classroom tests, namely: face validity and content validity. Face validity refers to the appearance of a test that looks like it is measuring what it is supposed to measure. Face validity is essential in ensuring that test-takers persevere and try their best on a test. A test that appears to be other than what it claims to be measuring without face validity may dissuade students from persevering with the test. Therefore, ascertaining whether a test possesses face validity does not require the opinion of an expert. In contrast to face validity, a claim of content validity requires affirmation from an expert. The expert should look into whether the test content is representative of the skills that are supposed to be measured. This involves looking into the consistency between the syllabus content, the test objective and the test contents. If the test contents cover the test objectives, which in turn are representative of the syllabus, it could be said that the test possesses content validity. For example, an English test paper is definitely not a valid instrument for measuring mathematical skills. An algebra test, on the

other hand, is to a certain degree a valid measuring tool for mathematical skills because the ability to do algebra is an indicator of a persons mathematical skills. Still, the algebra test is not highly valid because mathematical skills are not confined to the ability to solve algebra problems alone. Therefore, to make the test paper highly valid, other indicators of mathematical skills must be included in the test paper. If the test is valid and reliable, a student who shows good mathematic skills on that particular test should also do equally well on other mathematical tests of similar content and objective. In other words, students do not just possess skills to solve the mathematical items that are given in the specific test. Types of Reliability There are three types of reliability that are most relevant to classroom tests, namely: internalconsistency, inter-scorer and intra-scorer reliability. Internal consistency refers to the consistency of objectives among the items of a test. For example, consider a 10-item mathematical test that is supposed to measure students ability to solve two variable algebra problems. In this case, the question of internal consistency refers to the answer to the question: are the 10 items measuring the same skill (ie students ability to solve two variable algebra problems), or are the different items measuring something else entirely or others besides the stated objective? Inter-scorer reliability refers to the consistency between the marks given by different teachers. Doubts upon inter-scorer reliability could arise when the same quality of answers is given different scores by different teachers. On the other hand, intra-scorer reliability refers to marks given by the same teacher on different occasions. An example of intra-scorer reliability at stake is when a teacher gets tired of marking and starts to give lower marks as time goes on. Consistent grading is essential in order to ensure the reliability of test scores. Scorer reliability can be improved by a marking scheme or a scoring rubric that is prepared in advance and used to assist teachers in scoring answer scripts. So what can be done to develop a valid and reliable test? In order to achieve a certain degree of validity and reliability, the assessment and evaluation process has to be looked at in its totality, and the factors that may affect validity and reliability need to be identified. Typical activities in the classroom assessment and evaluation process are as follows: 1. Deciding on a Tests Objectives Determining a tests objective(s) is the first step in a tests construction process. The test objective is the criterion that will be used in order to judge whether a test is sufficiently valid or not. This objective is general in nature, which can be represented by a set of more specific objectives or item objectives to be identified through an analysis of the syllabus. 2. Designing and Developing a Test Designing a test is indeed a complex task. Many questions need to be asked and a lot of decisions need to be made at a number of stages along the way so as to increase the chances of

meeting the criteria of a good test. In other words, the design and development stage of a classroom test holds the most possibilities for ensuring test validity and reliability. One of the most important steps in designing a test is constructing a table of specifications. 3. Deciding on Item Format The choice of item format depends upon several factors, with the item objective being the most important. Apart from the item objective, ease of scoring, ease of administration and the content coverage are also relevant factors in deciding on the item format. Common item format includes multiple choice, essay, structured and true/false. Certain formats are more suitable than others in meeting the item objective. For example, an essay question allows a student answering the question to demonstrate his/her depth of knowledge. On the other hand, essay questions are relatively more time consuming to mark and need greater efforts to ensure inter-scorer and intra-scorer reliability. In brief, when designing test items, a teacher has to balance the needs of the test objectives while also considering other practical constraints that may contribute to lower (or enhance) the tests validity and reliability. Once the format is chosen, the teacher has to construct the test item. The language used, the context of the problem and ease of understanding can affect the reliability and validity of the test as a whole. Some common mistakes that contribute to a reduction in validity and reliability include the following: Ambiguous questions, questions that have multiple interpretations Bias items, such as items that are favour certain social backgrounds The use of jargon that is not familiar to the target group Avoiding these mistakes should enhance the validity and reliability of the test scores. What is Lottery? A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. The word stems from the Dutch word loterij, which is derived from the noun lot meaning fate or destiny. In addition, in early 1420 lotteries were used in Europe for public works. High-value commodities such as land and art were often sold through lotteries. The first publicly run European lottery was in Florence in 1530. Types of Lottery 1. Lottery Scratch Tickets, are small lottery card tickets that can be scratched off using a coin or any pointed material. The front side has a silver colored cover that the player needs to rub off to find out whether the player has won a prize or not. Basically, the prize ranges from a small to a big amount of cash. The amount of lottery scratch tickets differs in price. Normally, the more expensive the lottery scratch ticket is, the more chances there are of winning a big amount of money. 2. Lottery Draw Tickets, are printed with a machine also known as the lottery terminal. The player can

buy lottery draw tickets at selected gas stations, convenience stores and grocery shops. Before leaving the counter, player need to check the numbers that have selected in the printed paper carefully. Make sure that the numbers have been printed correctly. If there are any errors, let the cashier know about it right away. The player needs to keep the lottery draw ticket safe at all times. Lottery Draw Tickets are considered to be bearer instruments. Meaning, the person holding the winning lottery draw ticket can claim the lottery winnings/prize even without player presence. That is why the player needs to make sure that the lottery draw ticket is safe. Oftentimes, the lottery results are broadcasted over the television or can be read in a daily newspaper. 3. Lottery Pull Tickets, have a resemblance with Lottery Scratch Tickets. The only difference is the player needs to drag away the card tab from the lottery pull ticket card to find out whether the player has won the prize or not. Just like the Lottery Scratch Ticket, the more expensive it is, the more chances there are of winning a big amount of cash. Is taking test like buying lottery? There are some cases which could be evidence that taking a test is like buying lottery. However, in Indonesia there is an issue which still debated among educators. The issue is about the quality of UN (national exams). Futhermore, UN is a compulsory exam for indonesian students in the last years of higher education. The problem that was argued among educators is the UN's test which was used invalid. Many of students who performed great, and have a good mark during their study were fail in the UN's exam (Radar, 2010). This phenomena mentions that UN exam is about lucky and unlucky. However, this case identify that test is like buying lottery, if a student is lucky, she or he will pass. If we look again into definition, purposes, characteristics of test itself, there is no similar between test and lottery. The most important that makes different between test and lottery is the validity. Validity refers to the degree, the test actually measures what it claims to measure. However, The validity of test must be considered in terms of the correctness of a particular inference about test takers. Compare to lottery, there is no consideration of the correctness, but more looking into fortunate of some one. Conclusion There are some cases that mention about similarity of taking test and buying lottery. If look into test itself there is different about test and lottery. The challeges that are faced in the issue of test, should be carried out or solved by educators and goverment which has a policy.

References 1. Airasian, P.W., Classroom Assessment (2th edn). New York :McGraw-Hill (1994). 2. McMillan, J.H., Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Standards-

Based Instruction. New York:Pearson (2007).

3. Maizam, A., Assessment of learning outcomes: validity and reliability of classroom tests (2005). 4. http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/97/03/Chapt3.html 5. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/605039/why_buying_lottery_tickets_ is_a_bad.html?cat=61 6. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/70165/winning_the_lottery_curse_or _a_blessing.html?cat=47