Are the tests useful? What we know about the usefulness of these tests

In any type of regulated training, it is usual to have a final evaluation system that involves taking an exam.

However, for years there has been a debate about the usefulness of this type of tool and there are sectors that propose other options. We will analyze this question to know the arguments for and against both positions, to have a global perspective on the usefulness of examinations.

• Related article: "Educational Psychology: Definition, Concepts, and Theories"

Are the tests useful?

In order to answer the question of whether exams are useful, we first have to situate ourselves in the setting in which these elements take place, that is, our educational system. It is evident that All training included in this system needs an evaluation process in which teachers have a way to check if students have achieved the goals set..

This test must also be objective and must prove said achievement or not of the objectives, so that both the students themselves and their parents, If we are talking about minors, they can know the criteria followed for the qualification granted and even present their disagreement, if so. consider.

That is where the issue at hand comes in. But, to know if the exams are useful, we must know them in greater depth. To do this, we are going to review the four principles that this test must meet to meet its objective.

The first of them is the principle of suitability, that is, to know if the exam is suitable for the purpose we are looking for, which is precisely to verify that the student has acquired certain knowledge or skills. Obviously, if an exam does not meet the principle of suitability, we would be facing a test that would be useless with respect to the objective we are seeking.

The next principle is that of relevance. For an assessment test to be relevant, it must focus on the contents that have been worked on previously and on which the students will be examined.. If the test focuses on topics that are far from them, we could say that it does not comply with the principle of belonging.

We can already imagine that, in order to know if the tests are useful, it is necessary that the principles that we are reviewing are fulfilled. The third of them would be the principle of autonomy. This consideration implies that, despite the fact that the evaluation is part of the educational process, it is necessary for the test to have a certain autonomy with respect to it. In any case, it must be designed taking into account the purposes it intends to achieve, which are nothing more than the verification of the knowledge acquired.

We would finally get to principle of objectivity, which had already been mentioned in a veiled way at the beginning. Of course, any examination should be objective, in order to avoid any benefit or harm that, knowingly or unknowingly could be provided to the student, in comparative injury with respect to the rest. Although it may seem obvious, it is not always easy to achieve a totally objective test.

The different types of tests

To further investigate whether tests are useful, we must now focus on the types of evaluative tests that we can find, since the answer can vary depending on the type.

1. Aptitude test vs knowledge test

The first great distinction that we must make is that of the tests destined to verify if the student has acquired either the aptitude or the knowledge that has been tried to be taught previously. In the first case, the aptitude test represents an assessment of skill, that is, of ability. Therefore, it will be checked whether the person is capable of executing the technique or not.

It is the case of physical or skill tests such as driving a car, motorcycle or other vehicle. But so would the mathematical exercises or other disciplines that require practice. In this sense, the answer to whether the exams are useful, in this case, would be affirmative, since the way The simplest and most logical way to check if a person has acquired a skill is by demonstrating it, directly.

On the other hand, we would have knowledge tests, which instead of evaluating a practical ability, are based on check if the subject has retained and understood the theoretical contents of a discipline. But said verification can be carried out in a very diverse way, as we will see in the following points. Therefore, this distinction is not enough to assess the question of whether the tests are useful.

• You may be interested in: "10 tips to study better and efficiently"

2. Oral test vs written test

The first differentiation that we can make when faced with a knowledge test is regarding its format, oral or written. The oral exam is less frequent, and generally consists of the development of a topic. The main drawback of this format is that other factors come into play, such as the pressure of having to speak in public and feeling evaluated.

For this reason, and speaking of whether the exams are useful, this type of test would be if they were associated with a subsequent activity in which the oratory itself or the act of speaking before an audience was an essential requirement. Otherwise, the utility would decrease, since these factors could distort the result, causing the person to achieve a lower performance than they would achieve through a written test.

The written test is precisely the most common assessment model. But, equally, their formats may be different, so it is necessary to continue advancing to to be able to conclude if exams of this type are useful or, on the contrary, they are not the most appropriate.

3. Open answers vs closed answers

Continuing with the written exams, and making a new subdivision, we find one of the most important distinctions, which is that of open-ended tests and open-ended tests. closed. Each one offers advantages and disadvantages, so its usefulness will depend on the objectives and needs raised by the teacher or by the educational system itself.

In the case of open-ended exams, they would refer to those known as development exams. In this case, the student will be asked a series of questions, either short or long, for them to write the answer, reflecting the knowledge they have on the subject in question.

This type of test is the most common. However, to know if tests of this type are useful, it is important to know the type of questions asked. On many occasions, the student is simply asked to repeat the lesson, just as it has been learned.. This method presents an obvious problem: what is actually being evaluated is the memory capacity of the student.

However, if what we want is to know if she has really understood the concepts, we can ask her questions that make her reason about them, not simply repeat them. In fact, some of these tests even allow the material to be used, as we will see later.

The other type of evaluation that we anticipated at this point is that of closed answers. Are the multiple choice exams, where questions and several response options are asked, from which the student must choose the correct one. In general, the correct answer will add one point to the total, while the incorrect one will subtract a small percentage, to compensate for the effect of chance.

These tests are useful for evaluating a large number of people in a short time and correcting them quickly thanks to optical reading sheets or other methods. But they have other disadvantages that make us wonder if tests of this nature are really useful.

And it is that, many times, these tests are built in such a way that what is really verified is the ability to recognition of the student, for which she does not even need, not to understand them, but to memorize in depth the contents. Many students learn to pass this type of test, but do not really acquire the knowledge in the long term.

4. open book vs closed book

The last distinction between evaluative tests is the one presented between open book and closed book tests. Exams have traditionally been closed book, which means that the student could not use any type of auxiliary material during the test (books, notes, etc.).

However, the open book format presents a clear difference: the student can use any element that she needs, since the questions that she is going to find do not imply having memorized a series of concepts, because you will be able to consult them during the test.

Instead, what is required of him is that he knows how to handle them and reason about them. This is another of the cases in which, regarding whether the tests are useful, we could answer in the affirmative, since it would have been possible to eliminate the rote aspect in which many of the tests fall, and instead we would make sure that the student handles the concepts correctly required.

Bibliographic references:

• left, b. (2008). From classical evaluation to pluralistic evaluation. Criteria to classify the different types of evaluation. EMPIRIA. Journal of Methodology of the Social Sciences.
• Lopez, M.S.F. (2017). Evaluation and learning. MarcoELE: Spanish Foreign Language Didactics Magazine.