Types of Tests and Exams in English
There are two types of tests and examinations in English:
1. Traditional or Essay Type
In these types of tests and examinations, all the questions are essay-type. These have all those merits and demerits which essay-type questions have. These days, they have been subjected to much criticism. According to Benjamin", "The traditional essay type of examination has been found rather unsatisfactory, and its limitations are well-known. Scientific investigations have proved that these examinations are frustrating and extremely unreliable for the evaluation of pupils' achievement and abilities."
2. New Type
These types of tests and examinations have all objective and short answer questions. They are called new because they remove some of the demerits of the traditional type tests and examinations. They have all those merits and demerits which objective-type questions have. New type tests and examinations are of two types:
(a) Oral and
(b) Written
(a) Oral Tests and Examinations
These are intended to test:
(i) reading,
(ii) comprehension and
(iii) expression.
Reading
The teacher asks students to read a passage one by one. He notes their pronunciation, stress, speed and intonation.
Comprehension
(i) Auditory Comprehension
The teacher reads a passage and asks questions about that. Dr Lado has constructed a test of auditory comprehension in English.
(ii) Reading Comprehension
The teacher asks students to read (silently or loudly) a passage of prose and then asks some questions about that passage.
(iii) Picture Comprehension
The teacher shows a picture to the students and then asks many questions based on the picture.
(iv) Story Comprehension
The teacher relates a story to students and then asks some questions about that story.
Expression
Agacd and Dunket have pointed three levels of expression in speech. They are:
(a) Ability to report a single, simple act or situation in precise words.
(b) Ability to express a sequence of ideas fluently and
(c) Ability to converse. Expression tests can be taken as follows:
(i) The teacher performs some actions. He asks students to describe them. For instance he closes the door and asks students to describe this action in English.
(ii) The teacher shows a picture and asks students to describe it
(iii) The teacher asks some general questions, e.g., What is your name? Where do you live ? How do you like your school? What is honesty ?,
(iv) The teacher gives a topic and asks students to speak a few sentences on that.
Advantages of Oral Tests and Examinations
(i) They test the ability of students to express themselves orally.
(ii) They test the pronunciation of students.
(iii) They test the reading skill of students.
(iv) They prepare students to face interviews in future.
(v) They help students in building personalities.
(vi) They test the understanding of English, spoken and written, by students.
Disadvantages of Oral Tests and Examinations:
(i) There is no place for writing in oral tests and examinations.
(ii) They are time-consuming. So, they prove very inconvenient for a class with huge strength.
(iii) There is subjectivity in marking.
(iv) The conference on 'The Teaching of English in Schools' held at Delhi in 1963 observed, "Although it was essential to assess oral achievement, the systematic testing of spoken English at the school stage involved, so many organizational problems that the difficulties in this direction seemed to be insurmountable."
(b) Written Tests and Examinations
Written tests and examinations are meant to test the following:.
(1) Vocabulary,
(2) Language study,
(3) Composition,
(4) Comprehension and
(5) Translation.
1. Vocabulary. Vocabulary testing consists of:
(i) Spelling of words and phrases.
(ii) Meanings of words and phrases.
(iii) Uses of words and phrases.
(iv) Building new words and phrases.
For testing spelling, the teacher can ask these questions:
Correct the spelling of the following:
Table (मेज); Chair (कुर्सी); Orange (कुर्सी);
Write the correct word in the space:
The ....................is fine today. (Whether, Weather)
The......... ...............jumped on the man. (Lion; Loin)
Add'ing'to the following words:
go; put; sit; come,
To test the meanings of words and phrases, the following questions can be asked:
Give the meaning of the following:
sky; banana; start; huge.
Give the antonyms of the following:
good; day; honest,
Give the synonyms of the following:
happy; beautiful,
Select the correct word which has been defined in the sentence:
Seven days one after another (week, month, year). Incidents related in a chronological way (Biography, History)
A. F. Watts' has developed a test of this type to test the meaning of words and phrases.
Select the correct meaning of the following:
Apple : संतरा, अमरूद, सेब, अनार।
Dr. H. C. Sinha has constructed a vocabulary test for classes X, XI and XII. Students have to give the nearest meaning in Hindi of a English word. In order to get students to make use of words and phrases, the following
types of questions should be asked:
Use the following words in sentences:
man, men, people, boy, girl..
Add'a'or'an'before:
school, college, apple.
Substitute the word beautiful with another suitable word:
beautiful day beautiful scene.
For building new words and phrases, the following questions can be asked:
Make a new word from each of these:
Apple, work.
Give two words starting form
(2) Language Study
Language study involves the testing of: (i) St since pattern and construction and (ii) Grammar.
The sentence pattern and construction can be tested by the following:
(i) Substitution tables
(ii) Use of tense.
(iii) Use of genders.
(iv) Completion of sentences.
(v) Changing sentences into negative, positive, and interrogative.
(vi) Changing sentences into direct or indirect speech.
(vii) Changing simple sentences into compound or complex sentence.
(viii) Changing the voice-passive or active.
(ix) Correcting a wrong order of words.
The grammar can be tested by asking:
(i) To find nouns, verbs, etc. of a sentence.
(ii) To find the object, subject and predicate of a sentence.
(iii) To find the participle and gerund of a sentence.
(iv) To change the narration and
(v) To change the voice.
(3) Composition
For this, the questions should be framed on the following lines:
(i) Write a few sentences expressing an idea.
(ii) Developing a story from the keywords.
(iii) Writing a story.
(iv) Writing letters..
(v) Writing applications,
(vi) Writing essays.
The marking on a composition should not be by total impression. It should be by categories, along, Rhodes and Bun had marked compositions In an experiment in the following manners:
Categories Marks
1. Quantity, quality and control of ideas 50
2. Vocabulary 15
3. Grammar and punctuation 15
4. Structure of sentences. 10
5. Spelling 5
6. Handwriting 5
Total 100
(4) Comprehension
Testing of comprehension is important, because it tests intelligence and vocabulary along with comprehension, as pointed out by F. G. French, "k is difficult to separate tests in comprehensions of a given passage from vocabulary tests, for obviously, that pupil will be better equipped to answer a test who has the larger vocabulary to draw upon...... Again, comprehension is, of course, closely linked with general intelligence and a comprehension test is also a test of intelligence." The following types of questions can be asked to test comprehension
(i) Write the names of the authors of .....A.
(ii) Explain the following passage: with references to contdxfi
(iii) Explain the meaning of these words
(iv) Give the central idea of trfelesso WKU.....
(v) What lesson do you get from the poem?
(vi) Who is the hero of the story
(vii) What did the hero say when he was rebuked by his other
(viii) Give a suitable title to the following passage
5. Translation
Passage in Hindi can be got transtated into English or vice-versa.
