Module 5. Best Practices in Testing
Fairness: Well, in recent years not only the validity or reliability but also fairness is a path where
we should stand because if a test is not fair it can not be valid as well. It should fit the majority of
test-takers and should be independent of their gender and social background etc.
Back in the days when I was a high-school student, I was unlucky to have a bad experience
with my tests and exams. It was really displeasing to realize that there were questions that I
hadn’t been told about before and I had been completely unaware and had no idea about the
possible answer. It happened like that, that I also had problems with my English classes. We
were taught Theoretical Phonetics and I always had difficulties with some charts and word
stress and suchlike. At the exam in some cases, I was given a paper where I could easily see
that some points hadn’t been covered during the classes. It was really frustrating to have the
stress of the questions that I gave myself like “will I be able to be lucky to pass this exam” or
“Did we cover the material? This negative aspect of the testing system made me feel
unconfident. For me, the fairness of tests and exams should be high and teachers should take it
into consideration. But as a teacher, I try my best to use tests made by me where I took these
subtle details into account.
Validity: Well, as we know, validity is a kind of measuring a student’s test abilities or the scale of
knowledge he/she gained. So it should be fairly compiled. If my memory serves me right it was
the time when I called for an interview. I was being tested by the organization itself and I was
given a test. The measurement system was graded from 5 to 10. I scored 7 but I was told that I
could get approved if my test results were above 7. So I think it is not fair and not a valid
system. In that case, the grading system should be 7+ so that we knew what to do with our
preparation for the exam. All in all, I could see neither fairness nor validity in the test
measurement. I always pay attention to the test validation in order to get exact results and
predict my future plans for tests.
Reliability: If I am not mistaken it was in my student years when our teacher gave us an
assignment for doing at home and I did it with my friend and we almost used the same words
and same structures. It happened so that I got a higher grade than her. And our teacher,
unfortunately, graded the same work twice but two various grades which were not that fair I
think. For me, a professional teacher who always takes a consistent measuring system should
grade students equally. A teacher should be very careful with a grading system while grading
students’ different activities. As a teacher, I try to avoid such displeasing results and use more
than one method of grading.
Conclusion: When I started teaching I almost didn’t pay attention to grading students but while
getting experience of teaching I started to realize the importance of grading and could observe
1
Fairness: Well, in recent years not only the validity or reliability but also fairness is a path where
we should stand because if a test is not fair it can not be valid as well. It should fit the majority of
test-takers and should be independent of their gender and social background etc.
Back in the days when I was a high-school student, I was unlucky to have a bad experience
with my tests and exams. It was really displeasing to realize that there were questions that I
hadn’t been told about before and I had been completely unaware and had no idea about the
possible answer. It happened like that, that I also had problems with my English classes. We
were taught Theoretical Phonetics and I always had difficulties with some charts and word
stress and suchlike. At the exam in some cases, I was given a paper where I could easily see
that some points hadn’t been covered during the classes. It was really frustrating to have the
stress of the questions that I gave myself like “will I be able to be lucky to pass this exam” or
“Did we cover the material? This negative aspect of the testing system made me feel
unconfident. For me, the fairness of tests and exams should be high and teachers should take it
into consideration. But as a teacher, I try my best to use tests made by me where I took these
subtle details into account.
Validity: Well, as we know, validity is a kind of measuring a student’s test abilities or the scale of
knowledge he/she gained. So it should be fairly compiled. If my memory serves me right it was
the time when I called for an interview. I was being tested by the organization itself and I was
given a test. The measurement system was graded from 5 to 10. I scored 7 but I was told that I
could get approved if my test results were above 7. So I think it is not fair and not a valid
system. In that case, the grading system should be 7+ so that we knew what to do with our
preparation for the exam. All in all, I could see neither fairness nor validity in the test
measurement. I always pay attention to the test validation in order to get exact results and
predict my future plans for tests.
Reliability: If I am not mistaken it was in my student years when our teacher gave us an
assignment for doing at home and I did it with my friend and we almost used the same words
and same structures. It happened so that I got a higher grade than her. And our teacher,
unfortunately, graded the same work twice but two various grades which were not that fair I
think. For me, a professional teacher who always takes a consistent measuring system should
grade students equally. A teacher should be very careful with a grading system while grading
students’ different activities. As a teacher, I try to avoid such displeasing results and use more
than one method of grading.
Conclusion: When I started teaching I almost didn’t pay attention to grading students but while
getting experience of teaching I started to realize the importance of grading and could observe
1
