A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF TEST-SCORING METHODS (CLASSIC REPRINT)

Excerpt from A Critical Examination of Test-Scoring MethodsA study was made by West13 of The Significance of Weighted Scores in the course of the construction of a test of ability to reproduce thought in passages read. The aim of this study was to determine the advantage, if any, of weight ing the separate items in a single test. Wests results are from 45 high school students from grades 8 to 12. The per cent of pupils failing each item was translated into percent ile values. These values were then used as one set of scores and were correlated with the simple point scoring. The con elusion reached was that the chances were greatly in favor of the simple point scoring being as correct as the weighted score. It was thought that the type of test might have a bearing on the conclusion. The same comparision was then made with army alpha and an analogy test. The close agreement of the scores by the different methods led to the final conclusion that weighting will serve its best purpose in assisting in a scaled arrangement of material even though the items scored be not scored by different values.Thus, although there is general agreement among psycholo gists in favor of weighting, experimental evidence at hand seems to be in favor of raw scores being practically as valu able as weighted scores. In order to determine Whether this conclusion had been reached because of the particular method of weighting used and the particular comparisons made, and whether it would hold for any of several possible methods, it was thought worth while to make an exhaustive comparison of several different methods on the same tests with groups large enough for the results to be significant of actual differences.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digita