What does a test do?
Well-constructed tests and quizzes can do more than capture students' grasp of the material - they provide detailed feedback on teaching and, as some studies suggest, they can increase student learning as well.

When to test?
A common testing schedule involves a midterm and a final exam. However, in Teaching Tips Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, McKeachie suggests giving a low stakes tests or quizzes early on as, “an early test gets students started, in that they don't delay their studying until the conventional midterm examination, and it will help you to identify problems early, while they are still remediable” (1999, p. 88).

How do I design an effective test?
General tips for designing test questions

• Grouping items by topic and/or heading will improve student performance (McKeachie, 1999, p. 93).
• Keep the entire course in mind when developing a test, (e.g., draw on all lectures, discussions, readings, etc.)
• Try using questions that ask the students to, "predict the outcome of a situation rather than those that simply ask the student to label the phenomenon" (McKeachie, 1999, p. 93).
• Discuss tests with your students, they will be the best judge as to whether or not a question appropriately challenged them. Keep a file of all your best test questions for consideration in future tests.

Strategies and Resources

General

• Test construction: Some practical ideas (University of Texas Center for Teaching)
• Constructing written test questions (National Board of Medical Examiners)
• Examples of test questions that correspond to Bloom's six levels of learning (University of Illinois: Illinois Online Network)
• The agony and the equity: Testing and grading (Speaking of Teaching, Stanford's Center for Teaching and Learning)

Multiple choice exams

• Improving multiple choice questions (University of North Carolina Center for Teaching and Learning)
• Improving multiple choice tests (IDEA Paper No. 16)
• Multiple choice questions that ask for critical thinking (University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program)

Essay exams

• Writing and grading essay questions (University of North Carolina Center for Teaching and Learning)
• Improving essay tests (IDEA Paper No. 17)

Giving tests and quizzes online

• Blackboard
• Respondus

Discouraging cheating on exams, ideas for deterring and detecting plagiarism from the Teaching Commons.

Additional Readings

Available at the DePaul Library: 371.261 H157D1994 ↓

Haladyna, T. (1994). Developing and validating multiple-choice test items. Hillsdale, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Available at Office for Teaching, Learning and Assessment ↓

McKeachie, W. (1999). McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

---.(1997). Writing test items to evaluate higher order thinking. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn& Bacon.