essay tests

1. Prepared by
Mr. Sam Jose
Nursing tutor
Bhopal college of nursing
Bhopal
samjose111@gmail.com

2. PLANNING THE TEST
PREPARING THE TEST
ADMINISTERING TEST
SCORING THE TEST
EVALUATION THE TEST

3. Written test
Essay test
Extended
response type
Restricted
response type
Objective test
Selection type Supply type

4. Restricted
response type
Short essay
type
short answer
Very short
answer
Selection
type
True -false
item
Multiple
choice
Matching
type
Extended
matching
question
Multiple
response
item
Assertion
reason
item
Interpretive
item
Supply type
Short
answer
Completion
type

5.  Definition
 Essay test is a test that requires the student to structure
a long written response up to several paragraphs.
(William W and Stephen G J,1990)

6.  Gilbert Sax (1989) believes that “essay test is a test containing
questions requiring the student to respond in writing. Essay
tests emphasise recall rather than recognition of the correct
alternative. Essay tests may require relatively brief responses
or extended responses.
 An essay test presents one or more questions or other tasks
that require extended written responses from the person being
tested( Robert LE and David AF)
 Features of Essay Questions
 No single answer can be considered throughout and correct.
 The examinee is permitted freedom of response.
 The answers vary in their degree of equality and corrections.

7.  Essay questions are divided into two major types, depending
upon the amount of freedom given to student to organize his
ideas and write answers.
1) Extended response
2) Restricted Response
Extended response
In extended response no restriction is placed on the student
as to the points he or she will discuss and the type of
organization the student will use.
Eg:a) Describe the health status of India suggested by different
health committees constituted from time to time in India ?
b)Explain the role of nurse in the health care team?

8.  An extended response of essay type questions permits the
student to demonstrate the ability to ,
• Recall factual knowledge.
• Evaluate their factual knowledge.
• Organize their ideas.
• Present their ideas in a logical , coherent fashion.
Restricted Response
• In restricted response the student is more limited and
restricted and student will have less scope because the
student is specifically told context in which his/her answer
is to be made.

9. • Eg; Describe in not more than 100 words ,the
recommendation made by the health survey and
development committee with regard to
improvement of health care delivery system in
India ?
• This type of question tend to be more objective
while the extended type questions tend to be more
subjective.

10. 1. Assess the ability to recall, organize, and integrate ideas.
2. Assess the ability to express oneself in writing.
3. Assess student understanding of subject matter.
4. Measure the knowledge of factual information.
Advantages
 Tests the ability to communicate in writing ; depth of
knowledge and understanding.
 It is relatively easier to prepare and administer.
 It emphasises on the integration and application of thinking and
problem solving skills.
 The student can have free to communicate, his/her ability for
independent thinking.

11.  It can improve writing skills.
 It requires short time for the teacher to prepare the test and
administer.
 The student can demonstrate her ability to organize ideas and
express them effectively in a logical and coherent fashion.
It is more economical to use essay type tests than objective
type.
It can be successfully employed for all the school subjects.
The mental processes like logical thinking ,critical reasoning ,
systematic presentation can be best developed.

12.  Disadvantages
 Essay type possesses relatively low validity and reliability
because of the
 factors like:
 1. Contaminated by extraneous factors like spelling, good
handwriting,coloured writing, neatness, grammar, and length
of the answer.
 2. Biased judgment by previous impressions.
 3. Mood of examiners.
 4. First impression
 5. Improper comparison of answer of different students
(Bright and dull).
 6. Ambiguous wording of questions may be misinterpreted
results in guessing and bluffing on the part of the students.

13.  Lack of objectivity.
 Provides little useful feedback.
 Takes long-time to score.
 Subjectivity of scoring.

14.  Do not give too many lengthy questions.
 The limits of areas and the behaviour which you want should
be clearly mentioned.
 Words should be simple ,unambiguous and carefully selected.
 According to the level of student, difficulty and complexity
items has to be selected.
 Avoid phrases e.g. ‘Discuss briefly’

15.  Suggestions for the essay test:
 Restrict the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes
that cannot be satisfactorily measured by objective items.
 Formulate questions that will call forth the behaviour specified
in the learning outcomes.
E.g. Compare the following two methods……..
 State the question clearly and precisely and make clear what
information the answer should contain.
 Indicate the approximate time limit for each question.

16.  The question should clearly indicate the significance of each
part so that students may determine the time to be devoted to
each part: This can be done by dividing the question into
component parts and offering marks according to the
significance.
 Eg; a 15 marks essay question on nursing management of
cirrhosis of liver can be stated as ,
I. Define cirrhosis of liver (2m)
II. Briefly explain the medical management(5m)
III. Explain the nursing management of a patient with cirrhosis
of liver(8m).
 Avoid the use of optional questions. If students answer
different questions it is obvious that they are taking different
tests and so the common basis for evaluating their
achievement is lost.

17. Suggestions for scoring an essay answer:
 Prepare an outline of the expected answer in advance-
This scoring includes characteristics of answer to be
evaluated and the amount of marks to be allotted to
each.(preparing a scoring key).
 Use the scoring method which is more appropriate (point
method or the rating method)- there are two common
methods of scoring essay questions.
 With the point method each answer is compared with the ideal
answer in the scoring key and a given number of points is
assigned according to the adequacy of the answer.
 With rating method each paper is placed in one of a number
of pile as the answer is read. These piles represents the degree
of quality and determine the marks assigned to each answer.

18.  Decide how to handle factors that are irrelevant to the
learning outcomes being measured: Several factors influence
the evaluation of answers to questions include handwriting,
spelling ,sentence structure ,punctuation and neatness. We
should make an effort to keep such factors from influencing
our judgement and make a separate score for written
expression or for the specific factors.
 Evaluate all the answers to one question before going to the
next one: One way to minimize this is to score all answers to
the first question , shuffle the papers then score all answers to
the next question .
 Evaluate the answers without looking at the students name :
 If important decisions are to be based on the results obtain
two or more independent ratings:

19.  It is possible for students to obtain higher scores in essay
questions than they deserve by the mean of clever bluffing.
This is usually a combination of writing skill, general
knowledge and use of common tricks like;
 Write something for every question.
 Stressing importance of topic.
 Name dropping.(The above view points are supported by the
view points of Florence nightingale)
 Agreeing with teachers opinion.
 Write on a related topic and “make it fit”.
 Writing in general terms that fit many situation.