Essay Explanation

Essay Examinations
 are really helpful tools for learning.

 They teach you to pull together content that you have learned, analyze the material, reach conclusions, and
defend your ideas.
 They challenge you to think clearly as you cope with time pressures, and to express yourself directly and
efficiently. Those are pretty useful skills in any career field.
 In my view, the process of writing an essay examination should also lead you to understand the course material
better when you finish the exam than you did when you began.
 Performing well on an essay examination requires chiefly that you know how to write an effective essay generally,
and that you know the material you are being tested on.
THE PROBLEMS
 Facing an essay examination means facing three challenges: learning the material, coping with anxiety and time
pressures, and designing effective answers. All of these are made easier with good methodology.
 You have learned to approach writing as a process, and learned the advantages of that approach. View learning
and test taking as processes, too, and learn and practice relevant techniques.
Advantages
1. Assess higher-order or critical thinking skills.

Essay questions provide an effective way of assessing complex learning outcomes that cannot be effectively
assessed by other commonly used paper-and-pencil assessment procedures. In fact, some of the most complicated
thinking processes can only be assessed through essay questions, when a paper-and-pencil test is necessary (e.g.,
assessing students’ ability to make judgments that are well thought through and that are justifiable).
2. Evaluate student thinking and reasoning.

Essay questions require students to demonstrate their reasoning and thinking skills, which gives teachers the
opportunity to detect problems students may have with their reasoning processes. When educators detect problems in
students’ thinking, they can help them overcome those problems.
3. Provide authentic experience.

Constructed responses are closer to real life than selected responses. Problem solving and decision-making are
vital life competencies. In most cases these skills require the ability to construct a solution or decision rather than select a
solution or decision from a limited set of possibilities.
Disadvantages
1. Assess a limited sample of the range of content.

Due to the time it takes for students to respond to essay questions and for graders to score responses, the
number of essay questions that can be included in a test is limited. Thus, essay questions necessitate testing a limited
sample of the subject matter, thereby reducing content validity. A test of 80 multiple-choice questions will most likely cover
a wider range of content than a test of 3-4 essay questions.
2. Are difficult and time consuming to grade.

Answers to essay questions are likely to be graded less reliably than other types of test questions and take
considerable time to grade. One of the advantages of essay questions is that they allow students some latitude in
formulating their responses. However, this advantage comes at the cost of time spent scoring and reliability in scoring.
Different readers may vary in their grading of the same or similar responses (interscorer reliability) and one reader can
vary significantly in his grading consistency depending on many factors (intrascorer reliability). Therefore, essay answers
of similar quality may receive notably different scores. Gender and ethnic bias, the length and legibility of the response,
and the personal preferences of the grader with regards to the content and structure of the response are some of the
factors that can lead to unreliable grading.
3. Provide practice in poor or unpolished writing.

The way in which students construct their responses to essay questions differs in several ways from real-world
writing tasks. Ebel and Frisbie (1986) point out that "the practice that essay tests give in writing may be practice in bad
writing—hasty, ill considered, and unpolished".
TYPES OF ESSAY TEST

1. Unrestricted or Uncontrolled
 The students’ freedom of expression is almost unlimited.
 Students are free to select, relate and present ideas in their own words.
Example: Describe what you think should be the role of the members of the family in the community.
2. Restricted or Controlled
 Usually limits both the content and the response by restricting the scope of the topic to be discussed.
Example: Describe two situations that demonstrate the application of the law of gravity.
TIPS FOR CONSTRUCTING ESSAY TESTS

 Restrict the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes that cannot be satisfactorily measured by
objective items.
 State the questions clearly and precisely and make clear what information the answer should contain.
 Indicate the approximate time limit to each question.
 Avoid the use of optional questions.
 Construct question that will call forth the skills specified in the learning standards.

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Essay Examinations

 are really helpful tools for learning.

1. Assess higher-order or critical thinking skills.

2. Evaluate student thinking and reasoning.

3. Provide authentic experience.

1. Assess a limited sample of the range of content.

2. Are difficult and time consuming to grade.

3. Provide practice in poor or unpolished writing.

TYPES OF ESSAY TEST

TIPS FOR CONSTRUCTING ESSAY TESTS

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