Standardized Exams

Mary Rolfes, College of Business

Examinations may be used to measure student knowledge outcomes. They may be administered on a pre-/post-test basis to assess students as they enter and leave programs, or once as junior- or senior-level exams to measure student achievement in the program. Standardized examinations may be purchased externally, or developed locally.

Standardized examinations must be carefully constructed. Care must be taken that the examinations reflect the actual content of the program, and are both valid and reliable. A "blueprint" of the test should be developed to ensure that coverage is appropriate and complete.

Examinations may be either norm-referenced (scores are reported relative to how other students perform--as percentiles, for example) or criterion-referenced (scores are reported in absolute terms and interpreted accordingly—faculty determine, for example, that a majority of the students should achieve a certain percentage score).

STANDARDIZED EXAMINATIONS (GENERAL)

Advantages:

Standardized examinations provide direct evidence of student knowledge, and a single exam may cover a wide range of topics.
Standardized examinations, if objective in format, allow for many students to be tested and evaluated in a reasonably short period.
Performance on standardized examinations can be compared across time.

Disadvantages:

It may be difficult to purchase or construct an exam which fits all students in your program, particularly if students have a wide variety of elective courses from which to choose.
Unless a senior-level capstone course exists, it may be difficult to find a logical point in the program to administer the examination.
Unless some rewards/consequences exist, students may not take the examination seriously; the results, then, may have little meaning or provide little information for improving your program.
Standardized examinations may not test higher-order thinking skills.

EXTERNALLY ACQUIRED EXAMINATIONS

Advantages:

Externally purchased exams:
May have national norms available for comparison.
Have been tested for reliability and validity.
Often reflect what the "experts" in the field believe students need to know.
Are usually fairly easy to administer and grade.

Disadvantages:

Externally purchased exams:
May not be available in your field or may not reflect the content of your specific programs.
May be too costly.
Tend to be norm-referenced, which may not provide information useful in assessing your program. You will learn how students in your program compare with others, but not necessarily how to improve your program.
If norm-referenced, may not provide a valid basis for comparison, since the samples used to construct the norms may be biased.
Often test only lower-order thinking skills.

INTERNALLY DEVELOPED EXAMINATIONS

Advantages:

Internally developed examinations:
May more closely reflect the content of your program. If objectives of your program are well-defined, criterion-referenced examinations may provide useful information on student learning.
May not be as restrictive in format as externally purchased ones.
May be designed to test higher-order thinking skills.

Disadvantages:

Internally developed examinations:
Require a major time commitment to develop and test.
May not have the same degree of reliability or validity as externally purchased ones.
Provide no way of comparing with other institutions.
Require a large base of test items, so that exam content may be changed regularly.

SUGGESTIONS

Departments should carefully evaluate whether standardized examinations fit their programs.
Examinations should be administered at the same point in each student’s program.
Care should be taken that non-objective examinations are graded in a consistent manner.