• [12] — Civil Service Commission Modern development [edit] Students taking a scholarship examination in a classroom in 1940 Standardized testing began to influence the method
  of examination in British universities from the 1850s, where oral exams had common since the Middle Ages.

• [5] The operations of the examination system were part of the imperial record keeping system, and the date of receiving the jinshi degree is often a key biographical datum:
  sometimes the date of achieving jinshi is the only firm date known for even some of the most historically prominent persons in Chinese history.

• Moreover, students in these countries usually take standardized tests only to apply for a position in a university program and are typically given the option of taking different
  standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT, which are used primarily to measure a student’s reasoning skill.

• [23][24] High school students in the United States may also take Advanced Placement tests on specific subjects to fulfill university-level credit.

• During the Song dynasty the emperors expanded both examinations and the government school system, in part to counter the influence of hereditary nobility, increasing the number
  of degree holders to more than four to five times that of the Tang.

• In contrast, high school students in other countries such as the United States may not be required to take a standardized test to graduate.

• Some countries such as the United Kingdom and France require all their secondary school students to take a standardized test on individual subjects such as the General Certificate
  of Secondary Education (GCSE) (in England) and Baccalauréat respectively as a requirement for graduation.

• [25][26] In contrast, universities in the United States use an applicant’s test score on the SAT or ACT as just one of their many admission criteria to determine whether an
  applicant should be admitted into one of its undergraduate programs.

• [4] Included in the expanded examination system was a military exam that tested physical ability, but the military exam never had a significant impact on the Chinese officer
  corps and military degrees were seen as inferior to their civil counterpart.

• Test scores of students in specific grades of an educational institution are then used to determine the status of that educational institution, i.e., whether it should be
  allowed to continue to operate in the same way or to receive funding.

• “[12] After Great Britain’s successful implementation of systematic, open, and competitive examinations in India in the 19th century, similar systems were instituted in the
  United Kingdom itself, and in other Western nations.

• The Mathematical Tripos, founded in 1747, is commonly believed to be the first honor examination, but James Bass Mullinger considered “the candidates not having really undergone
  any examination whatsoever” because the qualification for a degree was merely four years of residence.

• The examination system was finally implemented in the British Indian Civil Service in 1855, prior to which admission into the civil service was purely a matter of patronage,
  and in England in 1870.

• [13] In 1847 and 1856, Thomas Taylor Meadows strongly recommended the adoption of the Chinese principle of competitive examinations in Great Britain in his Desultory Notes
  on the Government and People of China.

• However these examinations did not offer an official avenue to government appointment, the majority of which were filled through recommendations based on qualities such as
  social status, morals, and ability.

• [12] Englishmen in the 18th century such as Eustace Budgell recommended imitating the Chinese examination system but the first English person to recommend competitive examinations
  to qualify for employment was Adam Smith in 1776.

• [8] West [edit] The imperial examination system was known to Europeans as early as 1570.

• [27] Once admitted, undergraduate students in the United Kingdom or United States may be required by their respective programs to take a comprehensive examination as a requirement
  for passing their courses or for graduating from their respective programs.

• For example, the No Child Left Behind Act in the United States requires individual states to develop assessments for students in certain grades.

• The Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854 made four principal recommendations: that recruitment should be on the basis of merit determined through standardized written examination,
  that candidates should have a solid general education to enable inter-departmental transfers, that recruits should be graded into a hierarchy, and that promotion should be through achievement, rather than ‘preferment, patronage, or purchase’.

• A proctor or invigilator may also be present during the testing period to provide instructions, to answer questions, or to prevent cheating.

• Grades or test scores from standardized test may also be used by universities to determine whether a student applicant should be admitted into one of its academic or professional
  programs.

• The modern examination system for selecting civil servants also indirectly evolved from the imperial one.

• The Civil Service Commission tried to combat such sentiments in its report:[18] …with no intention of commending either the religion or the imperialism of China, we could
  not see why the fact that the most enlightened and enduring government of the Eastern world had acquired an examination as to the merits of candidates for office, should any more deprive the American people of that advantage, if it might be
  an advantage, than the facts that Confucius had taught political morality, and the people of China had read books, used the compass, gunpowder, and the multiplication table, during centuries when this continent was a wilderness, should deprive
  our people of those conveniences.

• Even as late as ten years after the competitive examination plan was passed, people still attacked it as an “adopted Chinese culture.”

• Tests may range from brief, informal questions chosen by the teacher to major tests that students and teachers spend months preparing for.

• According to Meadows, “the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and
  merit only.

• For example, in the United States, Educational Testing Service (ETS), a nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization, develops standardized tests such as the
  SAT but may not directly be involved in the administration or proctoring of these tests.

• He also admits that French education was really based on Chinese literary examinations which were popularized in France by philosophers, especially Voltaire.

• [6] Spread [edit] Invigilators seated on high chairs at a provincial exam in 1888 in northern Vietnam From the mid 19th century, universities began to institute written examinations
  to assess the aptitude of the pupils.

• [21] Contemporary tests Education [edit] Tests are used throughout most educational systems.

• Depending on the policies of the test maker or country, administration of standardized tests may be done in a large hall, classroom, or testing center.

• [16] When the report was brought up in parliament in 1853, Lord Monteagle argued against the implementation of open examinations because it was a Chinese system and China
  was not an “enlightened country.”

• Standardized tests are sometimes used by certain countries to manage the quality of their educational institutions.

• In 1952, the first Advanced Placement (AP) test was administered to begin closing the gap between high schools and colleges.

• In 1870, William Spear wrote a book called The Oldest and the Newest Empire-China and the United States, in which he urged the United States government to adopt the Chinese
  examination system.

• [20] After the War, industry began using tests to evaluate applicants for various jobs based on performance.

• Often, the format and difficulty of the test is dependent upon the educational philosophy of the instructor, subject matter, class size, policy of the educational institution,
  and requirements of accreditation or governing bodies.

• An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker’s knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification
  in many other topics (e.g., beliefs).

• Its successor, the Tang dynasty, implemented imperial examinations on a relatively small scale until the examination system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu
  Zetian.

• [40] As an educational tool, multiple-choice items do not allow test takers to demonstrate knowledge beyond the choices provided and may even encourage guessing or approximation
  due to the presence of at least one correct answer.

• In some tests; where knowledge of many constants or technical terms is required to effectively answer questions, like Chemistry or Biology – the test developer may allow every
  test taker to bring with them a cheat sheet.

• This is because standardized tests are usually uniform in scope, format, and difficulty and often have important consequences with respect to a test taker’s future such as
  a test taker’s eligibility to attend a specific university program or to enter a desired profession.

• However, a simple quiz usually does not count very much, and instructors usually provide this type of test as a formative assessment to help determine whether the student
  is learning the material.

• To prepare for a nonstandardized test, test takers may rely upon their reference books, class or lecture notes, Internet, and past experience.

• A test taker who takes a written test could respond to specific test items by writing or typing within a given space of the test or on a separate form or document.

• Licensing and certification [edit] Standardized tests are sometimes used by certain governing bodies to determine whether a test taker is allowed to practice a profession,
  to use a specific job title, or to claim competency in a specific set of skills.

• This means that only the test takers with higher scores will pass, that all of them took the same test under the same circumstances and were graded with the same scoring standards,
  and that the test is meant to determine whether the law school graduates have learned enough to practice their profession.

• A non-standardized test may be used to determine the proficiency level of students, to motivate students to study, to provide feedback to students, and to modify the curriculum
  to make it more appropriate for either low- or high-skill students High-stakes test High-stakes tests are tests with important consequences for the individual test taker, such as getting a driver’s license.

• [58] Conversely, nonstandardized tests that are long, infrequent, and do constitute a major portion of the test taker’s overall course grade or score usually require the test
  taker to spend great amounts of time preparing for the test.

• If a teacher wanted to create a test of medium difficulty, they would provide a test with a word bank, but some words may be used more than once and others not at all.

• In terms of administration, multiple-choice questions usually requires less time for test takers to answer, are easy to score and grade, provide greater coverage of material,
  allows for a wide range of difficulty, and can easily diagnose a test taker’s difficulty with certain concepts.

• Summative assessments may cover a few days’ instruction, an entire term’s work in cases such as final exams, or even multiple years’ study, in the case of high school exit
  exams, GCE Advanced Level examples, or professional licensing tests such as the United States Medical Licensing Examination.

• More specialised tests may be used to test ability to perform a particular job or role.

• [citation needed] Performance tests [edit] A performance test is an assessment that requires an examinee to actually perform a task or activity, rather than simply answering
  questions referring to specific parts.

• Standardized test Standardized tests are all tests that are administered and scored in a consistent manner, regardless of whether it is a quick quiz created by the local teacher
  or a heavily researched test given to millions of people.

• Isolated purpose and common practice [edit] The purpose of the test is to make a final review of the topics covered and assessment of each student’s knowledge of the subject.

• For one, many test developers were themselves students at one time, and therefore are able to modify or outright adopt questions from their previous tests.

• This may range from bringing and using notes during a closed book examination, to copying another test taker’s answer or choice of answers during an individual test, to sending
  a paid proxy to take the test.

• The instructor who chooses to use this testbank would only have to select a fixed number of test questions from this test bank to construct a test.

• [61][62] Unlike a nonstandardized test, the time needed by test takers to prepare for standardized tests is less variable and usually considerable.

• Test developers may construct multiple variants of the same test to be administered to different test takers at the same time, or write tests with few multiple-choice options,
  based on the theory that fully worked answers are difficult to imitate.

• The difficulties with essay items are primarily administrative: for example, test takers require adequate time to be able to compose their answers.

• This provides as much information about the students’ addition skills as a test question that asks what the sum of various numbers are.

• In general, nonstandardized tests that are short, frequent, and do not constitute a major portion of the test taker’s overall course grade or score do not require the test
  taker to spend much time preparing for the test.

• [60] Finally, test takers may rely upon past copies of a test from previous years or semesters to study for a future test.

• [40] As an educational tool, multiple-choice items test many levels of learning as well as a test taker’s ability to integrate information, and it provides feedback to the
  test taker about why distractors were wrong and why correct answers were right.

• The main benefit that is seen from open-book tests is that they are a better preparation for the real world where one does not have to memorize and has anything they need
  at their disposal.

• [40] As an assessment tool, essay items can test complex learning objectives as well as processes used to answer the question.

• Norm-referenced tests report whether test takers performed better or worse than a hypothetical average student, which is determined by comparing scores against the performance
  results of a statistically selected group of test takers, typically of the same age or grade level, who have already taken the exam.

• [59] Test takers may even hire tutors to coach them through the process so that they may increase the probability of obtaining a desired test grade or score.

• When a test developer constructs a test, the amount of time and effort is dependent upon the significance of the test itself, the proficiency of the test taker, the format
  of the test, class size, deadline of the test, and experience of the test developer.

• These past tests may be provided by a friend or a group that has copies of previous tests or by instructors and their institutions, or by the test provider (such as an examination
  board) itself.

• Students from different schools are often seen exchanging mock papers as a means of test preparation.

• Test takers may also use various learning aids to study for tests such as flashcards and mnemonics.

• In many countries, test takers even enroll in test preparation centers or cram schools that provide extensive or supplementary instructions to test takers to help them better
  prepare for a standardized test.

• It is not unusual for test takers to prepare for standardized tests by relying upon commercially available books that provide in-depth coverage of the standardized test or
  compilations of previous tests (e.g., ten year series in Singapore).

• Likewise, from the perspective of a test taker, there is also great variability with respect to the time and effort needed to obtain a desired grade or score on any given
  test.

• [67] In some cases, instructors themselves may not administer their own tests but will leave the task to other instructors or invigilators, which may mean that the invigilators
  do not know the candidates, and thus some form of identification may be required.

• [64][65] Finally, in some countries, instructors and their institutions have also played a significant role in preparing test takers for a standardized test.

• Finally, these items make it difficult for test takers to guess the correct answers and require test takers to demonstrate their writing skills as well as correct spelling
  and grammar.

• When used for personnel selection, the tests might be referred to as a work sample.

• Essay [edit] See also: Free response question and Essay Items such as short answer or essay typically require a test taker to write a response to fulfill the requirements
  of the item.

• Some of them cover two to three lectures that were given in a period of times as a reading section or a given exercise in were the most important part of the class was summarize.

• Practice varies widely in the United States; “finals” or the “finals period” at the university level constitutes two or three weeks after the end of the academic term, but
  sometimes exams are administered in the last week of instruction.

• This method presents problems, as depending on the number of questions, a significant number of candidates could get 100% just by guesswork, and should on average get 50%.

• The hardest variety of such a test is a fill-in-the-blank test in which no word bank is provided at all.

• [56] Final examination [edit] A final examination, annual, exam, final interview, or simply final, is a test given to students at the end of a course of study or training.

• Multiple choice [edit] Main article: Multiple choice In a test that has items formatted as multiple-choice questions, a candidate would be given a number of set answers for
  each question, and the candidate must choose which answer or group of answers is correct.

• Common tests[49][50][51] include timed running or the multi-stage fitness test (commonly known as the “beep test”), and numbers of push-ups, sit-ups/abdominal crunches, and
  pull-ups that the individual can perform.

• A test developer’s choice of which style or format to use when developing a written test is usually arbitrary given that there is no single invariant standard for testing.

• Instructions to exam candidates rely on the use of command words, which direct the examinee to respond in a particular way, for example by describing or defining a concept,
  or comparing and contrasting two or more scenarios or events.

• [40] When these questions are answered, the answers themselves are usually poorly written because test takers may not have time to organize and proofread their answers.

• In addition, doing this at the time the instructor collected all can make a significant part of the final course grade.

• Rather than only answering simple multiple-choice items regarding the driving of an automobile, a student is required to actually drive one while being evaluated.

• If the question has multiple parts, later parts may use answers from previous sections, and marks may be granted if an earlier incorrect answer was used but the correct method
  was followed, and an answer which is correct (given the incorrect input) is returned.

• The second family is known as One-Best-Answer question and it requires a test taker to answer only one from a list of answers.

• For example, a microbiology course might only cover fungi and parasites on the final exam if this were the policy of the professor, and all other subjects presented in the
  course would then not be tested on the final exam.

• Rather than testing what facts test takers know, open-book exams force them to apply the facts to a broader question.

• In administrative terms, multiple-choice items that are effective usually take a great time to construct.

 

Works Cited

[‘1. “Definition of test”. Merriam-Webster.
2. ^ Thissen, D. & Wainer, H. (2001). Test Scoring. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, p. 1.
3. ^ Wu, 413–419.
4. ^ Paludin, 97.
5. ^ Kracke, 252.
6. ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (2010). The Cambridge Illustrated
History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd Ed., pp. 145–147, 198–200.
7. ^ Liu, Haifeng (October 2007). “Influence of China’s Imperial Examinations on Japan, Korea and Vietnam”. Frontiers of History in China, Volume 2, Issue 4,
pp. 493–512.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Ko 2017.
9. ^ Kracke, 251.
10. ^ Yu 2009, p. 15-16.
11. ^ Schwarz, Bill. (1996). The expansion of England: race, ethnicity and cultural history. Psychology Press; ISBN 0-415-06025-7 p. 232.
12. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e Ssu-yu Teng, “Chinese Influence on the Western Examination System”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7 (1942–1943): 267–312.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Bodde, Derk, Chinese Ideas in the West. Committee on Asiatic Studies in American Education
[1]
14. ^ Huddleston 1996, p. 9.
15. ^ Bodde, Derke. “China: A Teaching Workbook”. Columbia University.
16. ^ Kazin, Edwards, and Rothman (2010), 142.
17. ^ Wu, 417
18. ^ Huddleston, Mark W.; William W. Boyer (1996). The Higher Civil Service
in the United States: Quest for Reform. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 15. ISBN 0822974738.
19. ^ Russell, David R. (2002). Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History. SIU Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN 9780809324675.
20. ^ Kaplan,
R. M. & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2009) Psychological Testing Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
21. ^ The College Board (2003). “A Brief History of the Advanced Placement Program” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-05. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
22. ^
“GCSEs: The official guide to the system” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-04.
23. ^ “About the SAT”. 2016-11-28.
24. ^ “About ACT: History”. Archived from the original on October 8, 2006. Retrieved October 31, 2006. Name changed
in 1996.
25. ^ “Cambridge Pre-U – Post 16 Qualifications”. www.cambridgeinternational.org.
26. ^ “International Qualifications – University of Oxford”. Archived from the original on 2010-08-22.
27. ^ “Harvard College Admissions”.
28. ^ “PISA
– PISA”. www.oecd.org.
29. ^ “Australian Citizenship – Australian Citizenship test”.
30. ^ Škifić, Sanja (2012). “Language ideology and citizenship: A comparative analysis of language testing in naturalisation processes”. European Journal of Language
Policy. 4 (2): 217–236. doi:10.3828/ejlp.2012.13.
31. ^ “Welcome to U.S. Figure Skating”. Archived from the original on 2010-07-27.
32. ^ “How do I Join Up?”. Mensa International.
33. ^ University, Carnegie Mellon. “Homepage – CMU – Carnegie
Mellon University”. www.cmu.edu.
34. ^ “Formal vs. Informal Assessments | Scholastic”. www.scholastic.com.
35. ^ “What Are Some Types of Assessment?”. Edutopia.
36. ^ Jump up to:a b Kaplan, Robert M. (2018). Psychological testing : principles,
applications, & issues. Dennis P. Saccuzzo (Ninth ed.). Boston, MA. ISBN 978-1-337-09813-7. OCLC 982213567.
37. ^ Ormiston, Meg (2011). Creating a Digital-Rich Classroom: Teaching & Learning in a Web 2.0 World. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-1-935249-87-0.
38. ^ North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, NCREL.org Archived 2008-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
39. ^ “Constructing Written Test Questions For the Basic and Clinical Sciences” (PDF).
40. ^ Jump up to:a
b c d “Types of Test Item Formats”.
41. ^ Jump up to:a b “MFO Topic C5: Developing Test Questions”.
42. ^ NEBOSH, Guidance on command words used in learning outcomes and question papers – Diploma qualifications, version 5, June 2021, accessed
23 September 2023
43. ^ AQA, Command words, accessed 27 December 2018
44. ^ Welsh Government, Fair access by design, Guidance document 174/2015, issued June 2015, accessed 15 August 2020
45. ^ Cambridge Assessment, Understanding Command Words,
accessed 23 September 2023
46. ^ Tobias, S (1995). Overcoming Math Anxiety. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. p. 85 (Chapter 4).
47. ^ “Different Exam Types – Different Approaches”. ExamTime. 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
48. ^ Johanns,
Beth; Dinkens, Amber; Moore, Jill (2017-11-01). “A systematic review comparing open-book and closed-book examinations: Evaluating effects on development of critical thinking skills”. Nurse Education in Practice. 27: 89–94. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2017.08.018.
ISSN 1471-5953. PMID 28881323.
49. ^ “Army Fitness Standards”.
50. ^ “RAF Fitness Standards”.
51. ^ “USMC Personal Fitness Test (Chapter 2 – Conduct of the PFT)” (PDF).
52. ^ “Welcome”. Fittest.live. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
53. ^ Mayhew, Jerry
L.; Houser, Jeremy J.; Briney, Ben B.; Williams, Tyler B.; Piper, Fontaine C.; Brechue, William F. (2010). “Comparison Between Hand and Electronic Timing of 40-yd Dash Performance in College Football Players”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning
Research. 24 (2): 447–451. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c08860. PMID 20072055. S2CID 35100936.
54. ^ “Group–Bourdon tool”. Digital Reality. Archived from the original on 3 January 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
55. ^ “Noun 1. midterm exam”. The Free
Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-05-12.
56. ^ O’Connell, Robert M. “Tests Given Throughout a Course as Formative Assessment Can Improve Student Learning” (PDF). American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
57. ^ WEHMEIER, Nicolas.
“Oxford University Press | Online Resource Centre | Learn about Test banks”. global.oup.com. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
58. ^ “How to study for Quizzes and Exams in Biochemistry” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-31.
59. ^ “Study strategies”.
Archived from the original on 2011-10-07.
60. ^ Weale, Sally (2016-09-07). “Sharp rise in children receiving private tuition”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
61. ^ “Past Exam Papers”. Archived from the original on 2010-08-10.
62. ^
“Past papers and mark schemes”. www.aqa.org.uk. AQA. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
63. ^ Sharma, Yojana (2012-11-27). “Meet the ‘tutor kings and queens'”. BBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
64. ^ Lomax, Robert.
“How to become a private tutor”. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
65. ^ Cohen, Daniel H. (2013-10-25). “The new boom in home tuition – if you can pay £40 an hour”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
66. ^ “Proxy test takers, item harvesters
and cheaters… be very afraid”. ccie-in-3-months.blogspot.co.uk. 24 April 2008. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
67. ^ “Easy Ways to Prevent Cheating”. TeachHUB. Archived from the original on 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdlange/4953240903/’]