ChatGPT has surged interest to cause people to look for its use in different tasks. However, before allowing it to replace humans, its capabilities should be investigated. As ChatGPT has potential for use in testing and assessment, this study aims to investigate the questions generated by ChatGPT by comparing them to those written by a course…

College instructors in the United States usually make their own decisions about how to design course exams. Even though summative course exams are well known to be important to student success, we know little about the decision making of instructors when designing course exams. To probe how instructors design exams for introductory biology, we…

What are the purposes of exams? Would teachers give exams if they were not grading students? Exams provide information that should inform the instructional program, let the students know their strengths as well as areas for growth, and tell teachers what information their students know and what they still need to know. When determining how…

This article presents guidelines for writing better test items to evaluate student learning better. Recommendations are provided for writing true-false items (test only one idea in each item), multiple-choice items (include the bulk of information in the stem), and matching items (only use homogeneous lists). Examples are provided. (Contains 7…

Four considerations that enhance the instructional importance of tests are content match, use of feedback, a flagging function, and the increasing tendency to attach sanctions and rewards to standardized test results. These sanctions are apt to force greater attention to the other three characteristics, strengthening the links between instruction…

This study encompassed the collection of teacher reported (N=326) testing practices and the direct assessment of teacher-made tests (N=175) for item cognitive functioning levels and construction errors. Focus was on assessing the nature and quality of teacher-made tests used in public school classrooms and describing the classroom teachers'…

Describes how multiple-choice items can be designed and used as an effective diagnostic tool by avoiding their pitfalls and by taking advantage of their potential benefits. The following issues are discussed: correct' versus best answers; construction of diagnostic multiple-choice items; the problem of guessing; the use of justifications of…

A total of 326 public school teachers of kindergarten through grade 12 responded to a survey about teacher-made tests, testing practices, and the availability of testing resources and guidelines. Testing practices and preferences were found to vary significantly by grade level, subject area, and length of teaching experience. School testing…

This paper offers college teachers guidelines for improving their teacher made tests. It notes that teachers may focus on how well students have learned course objectives while being unaware of how the testing process itself contributes to the results obtained. The paper reports the results of a test-taking workshop designed to improve college…