exam

History

Oral and informal examinations

Informal, unofficial, and non-standardized tests and testing systems have existed throughout history. For example, tests of skill such as archery contests have existed in China since the Zhou dynasty (or, more mythologically, Yao). Oral exams were administered in various parts of the world including ancient China and Europe. A precursor to the later Chinese imperial examinations was in place since the Han dynasty, during which the Confucian characteristic of the examinations was determined. However these examinations did not offer an official avenue to government appointment, the majority of which were filled through recommendations based on qualities such as social status, morals, and ability.

China

Standardized written examinations were first implemented in China. They were commonly known as the imperial examinations (keju).

The bureaucratic imperial examinations as a concept has its origins in the year 605 during the short lived Sui dynasty. Its successor, the Tang dynasty, implemented imperial examinations on a relatively small scale until the examination system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian. Included in the expanded examination system was a military exam that tested physical ability, but the military exam never had a significant impact on the Chinese officer corps and military degrees were seen as inferior to their civil counterpart. The exact nature of Wu's influence on the examination system is still a matter of scholarly debate.

During the Song dynasty the emperors expanded both examinations and the government school system, in part to counter the influence of hereditary nobility, increasing the number of degree holders to more than five times that of the Tang. From the Song dynasty onward, the examinations played the primary role in selecting scholar-officials, who formed the literati elite of society. However the examinations co-existed with other forms of recruitment such as direct appointments for the ruling family, nominations, quotas, clerical promotions, sale of official titles, and special procedures for eunuchs. The regular higher level degree examination cycle was decreed in 1067 to be 3 years but this triennial cycle only existed in nominal terms. In practice both before and after this, the examinations were irregularly implemented for significant periods of time: thus, the calculated statistical averages for the number of degrees conferred annually should be understood in this context. The jinshi exams were not a yearly event and should not be considered so; the annual average figures are a necessary artifact of quantitative analysis. The operations of the examination system were part of the imperial record keeping system, and the date of receiving the jinshi degree is often a key biographical datum: sometimes the date of achieving jinshi is the only firm date known for even some of the most historically prominent persons in Chinese history.

A brief interruption to the examinations occurred at the beginning of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, but was later brought back with regional quotas which favored the Mongols and disadvantaged Southern Chinese. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the system contributed to the narrow and focused nature of intellectual life and enhanced the autocratic power of the emperor. The system continued with some modifications until its abolition in 1905 during the last years of the Qing dynasty. The modern examination system for selecting civil servants also indirectly evolved from the imperial one.

Spread

Japan implemented the examination system for 200 years during the Heian period (794–1185). Like the Chinese examinations, the curriculum revolved around the Confucian canon. However, unlike in China, it was only ever applied to the minor nobility and so gradually faded away under the hereditary system during the Samurai era.

The examination system was established in Korea in 958 under the reign of Gwangjong of Goryeo. Any free man (not Nobi) was able to take the examinations. By the Joseon period, high offices were closed to aristocrats who had not passed the exams. The examination system continued until 1894 when it was abolished by the Gabo Reform. As in China, the content of the examinations focused on the Confucian canon and ensured a loyal scholar bureaucrat class which upheld the throne.

The Confucian examination system in Vietnam was established in 1075 under the Lý dynasty Emperor Lý Nhân Tông and lasted until the Nguyễn dynasty Emperor Khải Định (1919). There were only three levels of examinations in Vietnam: interprovincial, pre-court, and court.

The imperial examination system was known to Europeans as early as 1570. It received great attention from the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who viewed it and its Confucian appeal to rationalism favorably in comparison to religious reliance on "apocalypse." Knowledge of Confucianism and the examination system was disseminated broadly in Europe following the Latin translation of Ricci's journal in 1614. During the 18th century, the imperial examinations were often discussed in conjunction with Confucianism, which attracted great attention from contemporary European thinkers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Baron d'Holbach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller. In France and Britain, Confucian ideology was used in attacking the privilege of the elite. Figures such as Voltaire claimed that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and François Quesnay advocated an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese. According to Ferdinand Brunetière (1849–1906), followers of Physiocracy such as François Quesnay, whose theory of free trade was based on Chinese classical theory, were sinophiles bent on introducing "l'esprit chinois" to France. He also admits that French education was really based on Chinese literary examinations which were popularized in France by philosophers, especially Voltaire. Western perception of China in the 18th century admired the Chinese bureaucratic system as favourable over European governments for its seeming meritocracy. However those who admired China such as Christian Wolff were sometimes persecuted. In 1721 he gave a lecture at the University of Halle praising Confucianism, for which he was accused of atheism and forced to give up his position at the university.

Modern development

Standardized testing began to influence the method of examination in British universities from the 1850s, where oral exams had common since the Middle Ages. In the US, the transition happened under the influence of the educational reformer Horace Mann. The shift helped standardize an expansion of the curricula into the sciences and humanities, creating a rationalized method for the evaluation of teachers and institutions and creating a basis for the streaming of students according to ability.

Both World War I and World War II demonstrated the necessity of standardized testing and the benefits associated with these tests. Tests were used to determine the mental aptitude of recruits to the military. The US Army used the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale to test the IQ of the soldiers. After the War, industry began using tests to evaluate applicants for various jobs based on performance. In 1952, the first Advanced Placement (AP) test was administered to begin closing the gap between high schools and colleges.

Contemporary tests

Education

Tests are used throughout most educational systems. Tests may range from brief, informal questions chosen by the teacher to major tests that students and teachers spend months preparing for.

Some countries such as the United Kingdom and France require all their secondary school students to take a standardized test on individual subjects such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (in England) and Baccalauréat respectively as a requirement for graduation. These tests are used primarily to assess a student's proficiency in specific subjects such as mathematics, science, or literature. In contrast, high school students in other countries such as the United States may not be required to take a standardized test to graduate. Moreover, students in these countries usually take standardized tests only to apply for a position in a university program and are typically given the option of taking different standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT, which are used primarily to measure a student's reasoning skill. High school students in the United States may also take Advanced Placement tests on specific subjects to fulfill university-level credit. Depending on the policies of the test maker or country, administration of standardized tests may be done in a large hall, classroom, or testing center. A proctor or invigilator may also be present during the testing period to provide instructions, to answer questions, or to prevent cheating.

Grades or test scores from standardized test may also be used by universities to determine whether a student applicant should be admitted into one of its academic or professional programs. For example, universities in the United Kingdom admit applicants into their undergraduate programs based primarily or solely on an applicant's grades on pre-university qualifications such as the GCE A-levels or Cambridge Pre-U. In contrast, universities in the United States use an applicant's test score on the SAT or ACT as just one of their many admission criteria to determine whether an applicant should be admitted into one of its undergraduate programs. The other criteria in this case may include the applicant's grades from high school, extracurricular activities, personal statement, and letters of recommendations. Once admitted, undergraduate students in the United Kingdom or United States may be required by their respective programs to take a comprehensive examination as a requirement for passing their courses or for graduating from their respective programs.

Standardized tests are sometimes used by certain countries to manage the quality of their educational institutions. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act in the United States requires individual states to develop assessments for students in certain grades. In practice, these assessments typically appear in the form of standardized tests. Test scores of students in specific grades of an educational institution are then used to determine the status of that educational institution, i.e., whether it should be allowed to continue to operate in the same way or to receive funding.

Licensing and certification

Standardized tests are sometimes used by certain governing bodies to determine whether a test taker is allowed to practice a profession, to use a specific job title, or to claim competency in a specific set of skills. For example, a test taker who intends to become a lawyer is usually required by a governing body such as a governmental bar licensing agency to pass a bar exam.

Immigration and naturalization

Standardized tests are also used in certain countries to regulate immigration. For example, intended immigrants to Australia are legally required to pass a citizenship test as part of that country's naturalization process.

Language testing in naturalization process

When analyzed in the context of language texting in the naturalization processes, the ideology can be found from two distinct but nearly related points. One refers to the construction and deconstruction of the nation's constitutive elements that makes their own identity, while the second has a more restricted view of the notion of specific language and ideologies that may served in a specific purpose.

Competitions

Tests are sometimes used as a tool to select for participants that have potential to succeed in a competition such as a sporting event. For example, skaters who wish to participate in figure skating competitions in the United States must pass official U.S. Figure Skating tests just to qualify.

Group memberships

Tests are sometimes used by a group to select for certain types of individuals to join the group. For example, Mensa International is a high-IQ society that requires individuals to score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised IQ test.

Types

Assessment types include:

Formative assessment

Formative assessments are informal and formal tests taken during the learning process. These assessments modify the later learning activities, to improve student achievement. They identify strengths and weaknesses and help target areas that need work. The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.

Summative assessment

Summative assessments evaluate competence at the end of an instructional unit, with the goal of determining if the candidate has assimilated the knowledge or skills to the required standard. Summative assessments may cover a few days' instruction, an entire term's work in cases such as final exams, or even multiple years' study, in the case of high school exit exams, GCE Advanced Level examples, or professional licensing tests such as the United States Medical Licensing Examination.

Norm-referenced test

Norm-referenced tests compare a student's performance against a national or other "norm" group. Only a certain percentage of test takers will get the best and worse scores. Norm-referencing is usually called grading on a curve when the comparison group is students in the same classroom. Norm-referenced tests report whether test takers performed better or worse than a hypothetical average student, which is determined by comparing scores against the performance results of a statistically selected group of test takers, typically of the same age or grade level, who have already taken the exam.

Criterion-referenced test

Criterion-referenced tests are designed to measure student performance against a fixed set of criteria or learning standards. It is possible for all test takers to pass, just like it is possible for all test takers to fail. These tests can use individual's scores to focus on improving the skills that were lacking in comprehension.

Assessment formats

Written tests

Written tests are tests that are administered on paper or on a computer (as an eExam). A test taker who takes a written test could respond to specific test items by writing or typing within a given space of the test or on a separate form or document.

In some tests; where knowledge of many constants or technical terms is required to effectively answer questions, like Chemistry or Biology – the test developer may allow every test taker to bring with them a cheat sheet.

A test developer's choice of which style or format to use when developing a written test is usually arbitrary given that there is no single invariant standard for testing. Be that as it may, certain test styles and formats have become more widely used than others. Below is a list of those formats of test items that are widely used by educators and test developers to construct paper or computer-based tests. As a result, these tests may consist of only one type of test item format (e.g., multiple-choice test, essay test) or may have a combination of different test item formats (e.g., a test that has multiple-choice and essay items).

In a test that has items formatted as multiple-choice questions, a candidate would be given a number of set answers for each question, and the candidate must choose which answer or group of answers is correct. There are two families of multiple-choice questions. The first family is known as the True/False question and it requires a test taker to choose all answers that are appropriate. The second family is known as One-Best-Answer question and it requires a test taker to answer only one from a list of answers.

There are several reasons to using multiple-choice questions in tests. In terms of administration, multiple-choice questions usually requires less time for test takers to answer, are easy to score and grade, provide greater coverage of material, allows for a wide range of difficulty, and can easily diagnose a test taker's difficulty with certain concepts. As an educational tool, multiple-choice items test many levels of learning as well as a test taker's ability to integrate information, and it provides feedback to the test taker about why distractors were wrong and why correct answers were right. Nevertheless, there are difficulties associated with the use of multiple-choice questions. In administrative terms, multiple-choice items that are effective usually take a great time to construct. As an educational tool, multiple-choice items do not allow test takers to demonstrate knowledge beyond the choices provided and may even encourage guessing or approximation due to the presence of at least one correct answer. For instance, a test taker might not work out explicitly that

Oral tests

An oral test is a test that is answered orally (verbally). The teacher or oral test assessor will verbally ask a question to a student, who will then answer it using words.

Physical fitness tests

A physical fitness test is a test designed to measure physical strength, agility, and endurance. They are commonly employed in educational institutions as part of the physical education curriculum, in medicine as part of diagnostic testing, and as eligibility requirements in fields that focus on physical ability such as military or police. Throughout the 20th century, scientific evidence emerged demonstrating the usefulness of strength training and aerobic exercise in maintaining overall health, and more agencies began to incorporate standardized fitness testing. In the United States, the President's Council on Youth Fitness was established in 1956 as a way to encourage and monitor fitness in schoolchildren.

Common tests include timed running or the multi-stage fitness test (commonly known as the "beep test"), and numbers of push-ups, sit-ups/abdominal crunches, and pull-ups that the individual can perform. More specialised tests may be used to test ability to perform a particular job or role. Many gyms, private organisations and event organizers have their own fitness tests. Using military techniques developed by the British Army and modern test like Illinois Agility Run and Cooper Test.

Stop watch timing was common until recent years when hand timing had proven to be inaccurate and inconsistent. Electronic timing is the new standard in order to promote accuracy and consistency, and lessen bias.

Performance tests

A performance test is an assessment that requires an examinee to actually perform a task or activity, rather than simply answering questions referring to specific parts. The purpose is to ensure greater fidelity to what is being tested.

An example is a behind-the-wheel driving test to obtain a driver's license. Rather than only answering simple multiple-choice items regarding the driving of an automobile, a student is required to actually drive one while being evaluated.

Performance tests are commonly used in workplace and professional applications, such as professional certification and licensure. When used for personnel selection, the tests might be referred to as a work sample. A licensure example would be cosmetologists being required to demonstrate a haircut or manicure on a live person. The Group–Bourdon test is one of a number of psychometric tests which trainee train drivers in the UK are required to pass.

Some performance tests are simulations. For instance, the assessment to become certified as an ophthalmic technician includes two components, a multiple-choice examination and a computerized skill simulation. The examinee must demonstrate the ability to complete seven tasks commonly performed on the job, such as retinoscopy, that are simulated on a computer.

Midterms and finals

Midterm exam

A midterm exam, is an exam given near the middle of an academic grading term, or near the middle of any given quarter or semester. Midterm exams are a type of formative or summative assessment.

Final examination

A final examination, annual, exam, final interview, or simply final, is a test given to students at the end of a course of study or training. Although the term can be used in the context of physical training, it most often occurs in the academic world. Most high schools, colleges, and universities run final exams at the end of a particular academic term, typically a quarter or semester, or more traditionally at the end of a complete degree course.

The purpose of the test is to make a final review of the topics covered and assessment of each student's knowledge of the subject. A final is technically just a greater form of a "unit test". They have the same purpose; finals are simply larger. Not all courses or curricula culminate in a final exam; instructors may assign a term paper or final project in some courses. The weighting of the final exam also varies. It may be the largest—or only—factor in the student's course grade; in other cases, it may carry the same weight as a midterm exam, or the student may be exempted. Not all finals need be cumulative, however, as some simply cover the material presented since the last exam. For example, a microbiology course might only cover fungi and parasites on the final exam if this were the policy of the professor, and all other subjects presented in the course would then not be tested on the final exam.

Prior to the examination period most students in the Commonwealth have a week or so of intense revision and study known as swotvac.

In the UK, most universities hold a single set of "Finals" at the end of the entire degree course. In Australia, the exam period varies, with high schools commonly assigning one or two weeks for final exams, but the university period—sometimes called "exam week" or just "exams"—may stretch to a maximum of three weeks.

Practice varies widely in the United States; "finals" or the "finals period" at the university level constitutes two or three weeks after the end of the academic term, but sometimes exams are administered in the last week of instruction. Some institutions designate a "study week" or "reading period" between the end of instruction and the beginning of finals, during which no examinations may be administered. Students at many institutions know the week before finals as "dead week." Most final exams incorporate the reading material that has been assigned throughout the term.

Preparations

From the perspective of a test developer, there is great variability with respect to time and effort needed to prepare a test. Likewise, from the perspective of a test taker, there is also great variability with respect to the time and effort needed to obtain a desired grade or score on any given test. When a test developer constructs a test, the amount of time and effort is dependent upon the significance of the test itself, the proficiency of the test taker, the format of the test, class size, deadline of the test, and experience of the test developer.

The process of test construction has been aided in several ways. For one, many test developers were themselves students at one time, and therefore are able to modify or outright adopt questions from their previous tests. In some countries, book publishers often provide teaching packages that include test banks to university instructors who adopt their published books for their courses. These test banks may contain up to four thousand sample test questions that have been peer-reviewed and time-tested. The instructor who chooses to use this testbank would only have to select a fixed number of test questions from this test bank to construct a test.

As with test constructions, the time needed for a test taker to prepare for a test is dependent upon the frequency of the test, the test developer, and the significance of the test. In general, nonstandardized tests that are short, frequent, and do not constitute a major portion of the test taker's overall course grade or score do not require the test taker to spend much time preparing for the test. Conversely, nonstandardized tests that are long, infrequent, and do constitute a major portion of the test taker's overall course grade or score usually require the test taker to spend great amounts of time preparing for the test. To prepare for a nonstandardized test, test takers may rely upon their reference books, class or lecture notes, Internet, and past experience. Test takers may also use various learning aids to study for tests such as flashcards and mnemonics. Test takers may even hire tutors to coach them through the process so that they may increase the probability of obtaining a desired test grade or score. In countries such as the United Kingdom, demand for private tuition has increased significantly in recent years. Finally, test takers may rely upon past copies of a test from previous years or semesters to study for a future test. These past tests may be provided by a friend or a group that has copies of previous tests or by instructors and their institutions, or by the test provider (such as an examination board) itself.

Cheating

Cheating on a test is the process of using unauthorized means or methods to obtain a desired test score or grade. This may range from bringing and using notes during a closed book examination, to copying another test taker's answer or choice of answers during an individual test, to sending a paid proxy to take the test.

Several common methods have been employed to combat cheating. They include the use of multiple proctors or invigilators during a testing period to monitor test takers. Test developers may construct multiple variants of the same test to be administered to different test takers at the same time, or write tests with few multiple-choice options, based on the theory that fully worked answers are difficult to imitate. In some cases, instructors themselves may not administer their own tests but will leave the task to other instructors or invigilators, which may mean that the invigilators do not know the candidates, and thus some form of identification may be required. Finally, instructors or test providers may compare the answers of suspected cheaters on the test themselves to determine whether cheating did occur.