WRITING SHORT ANSWER AND ESSAY ITEMS

Alejandro V. FerryRitchell AbocadoMelanie Mercado

SUPPLY-TYPE ITEMS:

ESSAY AND SHORT ANSWER

ADVANTAGES • Easy to construct, • Economical, • Time and energy saving, • Idea organization training in the part of the students,• Minimizing guessing,

ADVANTAGES• Developing critical thinking, • Minimizing cheating, • Minimizing rote memorization, • Developing good study habits and • Developing students’ ability to express their own ideas.

DISADVANTAGES• Low validity in checking, • Low reliability, low practicability, • Encourage bluffing, • Difficult to correct or score and • A great disadvantage to students with poor penmanship.

RULES FOR WRITING SHORT ANSWER ITEMS

state the item clearly so that only one correct answer is acceptable. Ambiguity is not accepted in this type of test.

1

RULES FOR WRITING SHORT ANSWER ITEMS

Begin with a question and shift to an incomplete statement later to achieve preciseness and conciseness

2

RULES FOR WRITING SHORT ANSWER ITEMS

Leave a blank at the end of the statement

3

RULES FOR WRITING SHORT ANSWER ITEMS 4Avoid giving clues to the right answer.

RULES FOR WRITING SHORT ANSWER ITEMS

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 1state the questions that

require clear, specific and narrow task or topic to be

performed

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 2

Give enough time limit for answering each

essay questions

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 3

require all students to answer all questions

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 4

Make clear to the student if the spelling, punctuation, content

clarity and style are to be considered

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 5Grade each essay

question with point method, using well-

defined criteria

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 6Evaluate all student’s

responses to one question before going to the next

question

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 7

Evaluate answers to essay questions

without identifying the student

RULES FOR PREPARING/ADMINISTERING ESSAY QUESTIONS 7If possible, two or

more correctors must be employed to

ensure reliable results