Test wiseness: Definition, Types, and Implications, as well as Studies related with Test Wiseness

Test wiseness: Definition, Types, and Implications, as well as Studies related with Test Wiseness

By Rojab Siti R., & Muhammad Yunus

Gibb (1964) defined test-wiseness as the ability to respond advantageously to item clues in a multiple-choice setting and therefore to obtain credit without knowledge of the subject matter being tested. Test wiseness is also called test familiarity or test wisdom by Thorndike (1951: 569). It can lead to lower validity.

Types of test wiseness:

1.       Internal cues: the cues lies in the stem

• -         Grammatical help
• -          Associaton: similar word, phrase, stated in the stem and is the key
• -          Length: the correct answer usually the longest and more detailed than distractors
• -          Overlapping distractors
• -          Absurd and specific alternatives: the distractors arae obviously wrong and the key is clearly correct
• -          Spelling: spelling errors in distractors

2.       External cues

• -          Give away: incidently put the key of the question in the stem of other questions
• -          The order of answer: students may predict the order of their answer
• -          The number of laternatives:  3 options: 33% chance to guess. The more option, the less chance for guessing

Other  types of test wiseness, among others are:  time-using stratgeis, error avoidance strategies, guessing stratgies, deductive reasoning strategies, internal consideration and cue-using strategis.

Implications: TW can affect one’s score,  may not represent their real perfomance.  Therefore, test developers should be given training on designing a good test which should be free from test-wiseness items.

For test takers, test-wiseness is important since it helps test-takers take advantage of the clues an instructor may put in when the test is written.  Besides, in a guessing situation, test-takers will be able to eliminate some of the alternatives and concentrate their choice on the others.  As a result,  test-takers will be able to raise their scores by using test wiseness.

The implications of test wiseness ontest takers are that  it helps reduces test takers’ anxiety, helps in time management and makes the test less threatening to students.

Reference
Yun, Xu & Zunmin, Wu. 2011. A Review of the     Research on Test-taking Strategies in the Past 50 Years. Foreign Language Learning  Theory and Practice. V1(1): 43-51.         Retrieved from http://202.120.85.34/     Jweb_wyjx/EN/abstract/                abstract8356.shtml