What is a Standardized Test?
A type of test that is administered, scored, and
interpreted in the same way for all students in all conditions of testing.
Standardized tests are constructed by experts. It establishes uniformity of
procedures for the administration and scoring of the test.
What is a Teacher-Made Test?
Teacher-made tests are prepared locally by the teachers to
test the educational achievement of their students and find the weaknesses and
strengths among the students. Sometimes these tests are also constructed to
determine the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process. These kinds of tests
are not standardized and only made for a particular group of students.
Now we will discuss the key differences between Standardized
Tests and Teacher-made Tests.
Standardized Test Vs Teacher Made-Test – Key Differences
Though the main purposes of standardized and teacher-made achievement
tests are the same, they have significant differences in their construction,
administration, and scoring procedures. Some of such important
differences are as follows:
|
Sl. No. |
Standardized Tests |
Teacher-Made Tests |
|
1 |
Constructed by test experts. |
Constructed by classroom teachers. |
|
2 |
Standardized on a very large sample. |
Not standardized; prepared only for a single class of students. |
|
3 |
Only objective items are included. |
Objective as well as subjective items may be included. |
|
4 |
Passes through four stages-planning, preparation, tryout, and
evaluation. |
Passes only through two stages-planning and preparation. |
|
5 |
Validity and reliability indices are estimated. |
Instead of estimating validity and reliability more emphasis is laid
on covering the content. |
|
6 |
Item analysis was done for selecting items. |
No analysis of items is done. |
|
7 |
Norms are developed for interpreting the scores. |
Norms are not fixed and hence interpretation remains incomplete. |
|
8 |
Administration and scoring interpretation are uniform and standard and |
No uniformity in administration, scoring, and interpretation. |
|
9 |
Construction is complex and costly. |
Construction is easy and economical. |
|
10 |
May not serve local and immediate classroom purposes. |
Constructed to serve the local and immediate needs of the classroom. |
|
11 |
Can be used to compare the achievement of two different groups. |
Cannot be used to compare since the test is not standardized. |
|
12 |
Used mainly in research, instruction, guidance, selection, and
administrative works. |
Used to measure achievement of students and institutions. |
Difference Between Standardized Test and Teacher-Made Test – According to Ross
According to Ross, there are four essential aspects in which
a standardized test differs from a teacher-made test:
The content is standardized, i.e., item selection has been
done vigorously, after careful scrutiny and by competent judges. Administration
is standardized, i.e., directions, time limits, etc., are worked out carefully.
Scoring has been standardized, i.e., scoring keys are
prepared, definite rules for scoring have been formulated, etc. Interpretation
has been standardized, i.e., norms for various groups are provided.