Sample Test

Analyze each of the test items that follow:• Drawing on what you have learned

from your reading of our text, & on your own experiences & knowledge, critique each of these items.

• Based on your findings,develop a set of principles (what to do or not to do) in writing effective test items.

True False Items

• High-IQ children always get high grades in school.

• Will Rogers said, "I never met a man I didn't like."

• If a plane crashes on the Mexican-American border, half of the survivors would be buried in Mexico and half in the United States.

• The use of double negatives is not an altogether undesirable characteristic of diplomats and academicians.

True False Items Continued

• Prayer should not be outlawed in the schools.

• Of the objective items, true-false are the least time-consuming to construct.

• The trend toward competency testing of high school graduates began in the late 1970s and represents a big step forward for slow learners.

Completion Items

• The evolutionary theory of _________ is based upon the principle of ________

• Columbus discovered America in ___________

• The capital of Mexico is ________ .

• In what year did Gerald Ford become president?_________.

Matching Items

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Multiple Choice

U.S. Grant was an:

• president

• man

• alcoholic

• general

Multiple Choice

The free-floating structures within the cell that synthesize protein are called:

• chromosomes

• lysosomes

• mitochondria

• free ribosomes

Multiple Choice

The principle value of a balanced diet is that it:

• increases your intelligence • gives you something to talk about with

friends • promotes mental health • promotes physical health • improves self-discipline

Multiple Choice

Some test items:

• are too difficult

• are objective

• are poorly constructed

• have multiple defensible answers

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is/are not associated with pneumonia?

• quiet breathing • fever • clear chest X ray • a and c • b and c

Multiple Choice

When fifty-three Americans were held hostage in Iran:

• the United States did nothing to try to free them

• the United States declared war on them • the United States first attempted to free

them by diplomatic means and later attempted a rescue

Essay Question

• Why should presidents be limited or not be limited to two consecutive terms of office? (100 points)