Teacher-made tests are tests created and administered by classroom teachers to evaluate student achievement and the effectiveness of teaching methods. When developing teacher-made tests, teachers should consider the purpose of the test, how it will impact instruction, whether it validly measures the intended concepts, if it is fair to all students, and if scoring will be consistent. While teacher-made tests are better aligned with classroom objectives, some teachers may lack the skills to properly design reliable evaluations. It is important that tests match course content and that questions evaluate student mastery of objectives without clues giving away answers.

1. TEACHER-MADE TEST
By Jaymie Eileen Victoria A. Casople
MA Industrial Psychology

2.  Teacher-made tests are normally prepared and
administered for testing classroom achievement of
students, evaluating the method
of teaching adopted by the teacher and other
curricular programmes of the school. Teacher-made
test is one of the most valuable instrument in the
hands of the teacher to solve his purpose.

3.  Classroom assessments are a big responsibility on educators’ plates. There
are plenty of possible formats out there: summative, formative, essay,
multiple choice – the list goes on and on. Rather than settling for a form
response, many teachers design their own assessments. Whether pre-made
or not, when developing classroom assessment tools, teachers should take
the following criteria into account:
Purpose: How will it be used?
Impact: How will it impact instruction?
Validity: Is it designed to measure what it was
supposed to measure?
Fairness: Will all the students have the same
opportunities to show what they have learned?
Reliability: Is the scoring system consistent with
that of the school and state benchmarks?
Significance: Does it address the contents that are
valued?
Efficiency: Is the test consistent with the time
available for the students to be able to complete it.

4. Teacher-designed tests offer clear
advantages:
They are better aligned with classroom objectives.
They present consistent evaluation material,
having the same questions for all the students in the
class.
They are easy to store and offer accessible
material for parents to consult.
They are easy to administer.

5. And an important drawback:
Some teachers may not have the necessary abilities
to design their own test, and therefore evaluations
may be less reliable.

6.  The type of test chosen must be consistent with the
content of the course. Take the time to plan tests
carefully and to decide which type of test suits the
content you taught. Most teachers favor objective testing
because it saves time when marking and has much more
reliability. It is highly recommended that classroom tests
should not contain a wide variety of test items, because
some students may find difficulty in shifting ways of
processing information. Additionally, each of the items
should evaluate whether the student has mastered the
objectives and separate these from those who haven’t.
 A test won’t be effective if students can guess the
answers or gain a perception of what the answer may be
by means of clues or aids extracted from the questions.

7. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (1) Learning Outcomes and Content Measured:
 They are used to evaluate the outcomes and content
of what has been taught in the classroom.

8. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (2) Purpose:
 The tests are required to suggest placement of the
child in relation to the class.
 Mainly used to know the students’ progress and to
improve the teaching learning programme of a
particular school.

9. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (3) Construction:
 They are prepared by the classroom teacher. These
tests are constructed hurriedly. Experts not involved
in its construction.

10. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (4) Test Items:
 Quality of test items unknown and is generally lower
than items of standardised tests. The questions may
or may not be objective type. They may be generally
of short answer type or essay Type.

11. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (5) Method of Administration:
 The teacher is the master of the situation. He is free
to administer the test according to his own lines of
thinking.

12. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (6) Method of Scoring:
 Teacher prepares his own scoring key. Usually such
scoring can only be done by a person equally
competent as the teacher.

13. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:
 (7) Interpretation of Scores:
 Scores can be compared and interpreted only in the
context of the local school situation.
The teacher-made tests do not have norms.

14. TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
STANDARDIZED:
 (1) Learning Outcomes and Content Measured:
 They are used to evaluate outcomes and content that have been determined irrespective of what has been taught.
 (2) Purpose:
 The tests are required to suggest placement of the child in relation to the sample in which the test has been standardised.
 Used mainly in research work, guidance, counselling, selection and for administration purposes.
 (3) Construction:
 Use sophisticated procedures and time consuming for its construction. It is a collaborative venture. It has to involve experts along with
practising teacher in its own construction.
 (4) Test Items:
 Generally quality of items is high. They are pre-tested and selected on the basis of difficulty and discrimination power. The questions are
bound to be of objective type.
 The test has to be administered under the conditions prevailing at the time of administration of the test for standardisation. An user of the
test administers the test as per test direction.
 (5) Method of Administration:
 The scoring key is prepared previously. The user of the test has to apply the said scoring key. Such scoring does not require expert
knowledge.
 (6) Method of Scoring:
 Scores can be compared to norm groups, Test manuals and other guides for interpretation and use.
 (7) Interpretation of Scores:
 Scores can be compared to norm groups, Test manuals and other guides for interpretation and use.
 (8) Norms:
 Standardised tests have norms meant for a population on which they have been standardised. The norms like T-score, Z-score, Percentile
Scores, Mean, Mdn, Mode, SD etc. help in valuing a raw score quickly and comparing the scores of two or more individuals, schools etc.
 Standardised tests have appreciable validity, reliability, objectivity and practicability.

15. ESSAY TYPE TEST