HOW TO SCORE TESTS???

WRITING SKILL
A. SCORING THE DICTATION TEST
The best way to score a dictation test is to deduct one point for
each error. It is an accurate, fast, reliable scoring.
For example; you can use 100 points.
Add up the number of errors on each dictation. If no one makes as
many as 100 errors, you can just subtract the number of errors
from 100 for each persons score.
If several students make more than 100 errors, you can divide the
number of errors on every paper by 2. Then subtract this from 100
for their score.
B. FREE WRITING
Many students are inhibited in their writing because their work has
been overcorrected.
Lets illustrate: suppose you have been working to eliminate
fragments (He went home because he finished his work).
Students could be assigned to write a paragraph on a specific topic,
in class. In grading this short piece of work, you could give a score
of 100 % to each paper that was free of fragments (and perhaps
75% to a paper with one fragment, 50% to a paper with two, etc.)
Analytical approach:
Mechanic
20%
Vocabulary choice
20%
Grammar & usage
30%
Organization
30%

total

100%

SPEAKING SKILL

On a speaking test, getting the student to say something appropriate is

only half the job.
Scoring speaking depends on one of two things: How well trained we
are to evaluate oral communication and what factors we choose to
evaluate.

Teachers with considerable experience and training (particularly in

linguistics and testing) are more inclined to use holistic scoring than
teachers without this background.
Holistic scoring also tends to be selected when the teacher is inclined
toward evaluating a wide variety of criteria simultaneously (such as
appropriateness, fluency, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation).
Illustration:
Scoring on 5 criteria: (comprehension, pronunciation, grammar and
word order, vocabulary, and general speed of speech and sentence
length).
The criteria for grammar and word order follow:
5 points
uses English with few (if any) noticeable errors of
grammar or word order.
4 points

in general uses good English, but with occasional

grammatical or word-order errors which do not,
however, obscure meaning (e.g. I am needing more
English).

3 points

meaning occasionally obscured by grammatical

and/or word-order errors.

2 points

grammatical usage and word-order definitely

unsatisfactory; frequently needs to rephrase
constructions and/or restricts himself to basic
structural patterns (e.g. uses the simple present
tense where he should use past or future).

1 points

errors of grammar and word order make

comprehension quite difficult.

0 points

speech so full of grammatical and word-order errors

as to be virtually unintelligible to the man in the
street.

The points listed above are multiplied by four.

Objectified scoring is used both by teachers with little or no specialized

training and by highly trained teachers who simply prefer evaluation
that is consistent and easy to use.
Illustration:

On a ten-item test with questions on pictures, we might ask, whats

happening here? the student looks at the picture of a woman typing
and simply says, Shes typing or A lady is working = right answer.
But when the student responses like Yes or A lady or working
would receive no credit.
When he answer A lady, she eez working? it is intelligible. Therefore,
it is fully correct, despite pronunciation and grammar difficulties.
The scoring system allows:
2 points for fully correct answer, 1 for partially correct responses, and 0
for unacceptable or unintelligible answers.
(if there are 25 items on the test, the points could be added up and
multiplied by 2).