Standardized tests are prepared for
the wide nation. It is different with the teacher made test or the group of
people who make it. It provides accurate and meaningful information for the
students. It is any form of test that (1) requires all test
takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common
bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or
consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance
of individual students or groups of students. While different types of tests
and assessments may be “standardized” in this way, the term is primarily
associated with large-scale tests administered to sizeable populations of
students, such as a multiple-choice test given to all the eighth-grade
public-school students in a particular state, for example.
There are two types of
standardized tests that are: achievement test and aptitudes test. In
achievement test, it focuses on the knowledge and skills learned in school and
may be form of achievement batteries, diagnostic test, or subject-specific
test. Aptitudes tests focuses on the potentially maximum achievement of students
and may measure general intellectual aptitudes, aptitude to do well in college
or certain vocational training programs, reading aptitude, mechanical aptitude
or perceptual aptitude (Johnson
and Johnson, 2002)
In
addition to the familiar multiple-choice format, standardized tests can include
true-false questions, short-answer questions, essay questions, or a mix of
question types. While standardized tests were traditionally presented on paper
and completed using pencils, and many still are, they are increasingly being
administered on computers connected to online programs. While standardized
tests may come in a variety of forms, multiple-choice and true-false formats
are widely used for large-scale testing situations because computers can score
them quickly, consistently, and inexpensively.
The
procedure to get standardized test are constructing,
pre-testing, analyzing, revising, and editing. The use of standardized test is to get
information about the students’ ability in the wide nation. It is also to place the students
based on their capability, arrange the individual instruction and arrange the
remedial teaching if the test is given early. It is analyzed statistically and claimed
its validity to be used widely. It
has been tried out on a proper sample or the population from whom it is
intended and that on this sample.
Most of tests of these types are made up of items each of which have
characteristics in themselves and have been shown to contribute toward the
total performance of the test (Arikunto, 2003; Ebel as cited by Nurgiyantoro
1995)
Standardized
tests may be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. Therefore, the
first thing testers have to do, according to Hughes, is to have a clear purpose
for testing. In this sense, the author categorizes the kinds of tests
according to the types of information each test provides. The following
are a few representative examples of the most common forms of standardized test.
There are proficiency tests to measure people’s language ability regardless of
any training that they have had in the language, achievement tests that are
administered at the end of a course of study, diagnostic tests that are used to
identify the test taker’s strengths and weaknesses, placement tests that are
intended to place students at a certain level, direct testing which is when the
test requires the test taker to perform exactly the skill that is being
measured and indirect testing which measures the abilities that underlie the
skill that is meant to be measured; the testing of one element at a time
which is referred to as discrete point testing and integrative testing, by
contrast, requires the test taker to incorporate several language elements as
he or she performs a task; there is the norm-referenced testing designed to relate
one test taker’s performance to that of another test taker, and
criterion-reference testing that tells teachers what test takers can do with
the language; objective testing means that no judgment is required on the part
of the tester and subjective testing requires judgment on the part of the
tester, computer adaptive testing offers an efficient way of collecting data on
tests and test items by programming whatever information is desired and
communicative language testing that focuses on measuring the test takers’
communicative language ability.
Reference
Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2003. Dasar-dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan.
Jakarta: Bumi Aksara.
Hughes, Arthur. 1989. Testing for Language Teachers. Second Edition. United
Kingdom:
Cambridge
University press.
Johnson, David W. and Johnson, Roger
T. 2002. Meaningful Assesment. A Manageable and
Cooperative
Process.
USA: Allyn and Bacon.
Nurgiyantoro, Burman. 1995. Penelitian Dalam Pengajaran Bahasa dan
Sastra. Yogyakarta:
BPFE.
