Construction and Standardisation of Achievement Test in Chemistry of Class IX

Abstract

This study focused on the necessity of construction and standardisation of achievement test in chemistry. The purpose of the test was to measure the acquisition of concepts of chemistry. The test was made to measure knowledge, comprehension and application of the concepts of class IX chemistry students. All the items were of multiple choices, fill in the blanks, matching type and true–false statements. Each item has four alternatives out of which one is correct. After deciding the objectives of the test, a pre-assessment is made of the items to be put in the test. The nature of questions was given after weighting each and every component of subject matter as faras the curriculum is concerned. The study discussed the need for constructing standardised mathematical aptitude test for secondary-stage learners. The achievement test was constructed in mathematics for class IXth. In the final draft, 62 items were retained. The opinion of experts was taken to find content validity. The content validity is concerned with the adequacy of sampling of a specified universe of content. To determine the content validity of the test items, a list of outcomes was given to experts individually in subject matter. Experts also solved the test so that the scoring key could be verified. Only those items were kept in the draft for which there was complete agreement among the experts. The content validity was ascertained by preparing a blueprint of the test items indicating the weight age given for the objectives and competencies by these items. The split-half method was used to find the reliability of the test. The product moment coefficient of correlation was calculated. The coefficient of correlation between two test scores was found to be 0.82.