Definition and Purpose of Achievement Tests

Cognitive Test Development

Rizqy Amelia Zein

Department of Psychology, Universitas Airlangga

2026-09-16

Agenda

1. Achievement tests in everyday life
2. Definition and purpose of achievement tests
3. Four types of achievement tests by function
4. Basic principles of achievement test construction
5. Steps in constructing an achievement test
6. General and specific instructional objectives
7. Achievement test table of specifications
8. Item formats: objective or essay
9. Activity: identifying types of achievement tests

Achievement tests in everyday life

Some examples you’re already familiar with

• Daily quizzes and end-of-semester exams at school
• Job competency certification exams
• Foreign language course placement tests
• Driving practical exams

All of the tests above are achievement tests because they measure what someone has already learned or mastered, consistent with the definition introduced in Meeting 1.

Definition and purpose

Definition of an achievement test

Definition

An achievement test is a measurement instrument designed to measure a person’s learning outcomes after undergoing a particular learning or training process (Azwar, 1987).

Unlike intelligence tests or aptitude tests, achievement tests are tied to specific instructional material or objectives. The results of an achievement test can therefore only be interpreted in relation to the material that was taught.

Purpose of achievement tests

• Measuring how far learning objectives have been achieved
• Providing feedback to instructors and learners
• Serving as a basis for decisions: passing, placement, grade advancement
• Identifying parts of the material that have not yet been mastered

Azwar (1987); Anastasi & Urbina (1997).

Four types of achievement tests by function

Placement, formative, diagnostic, summative

Type	Function	Item characteristics
Placement	Determining readiness to enter a program	Easy items, covering program prerequisites
Formative	Providing feedback during the ongoing learning process	Tailored to each instructional unit
Diagnostic	Identifying the source of learning difficulties	Easy items, focused on commonly occurring sources of difficulty
Summative	Determining ranking or passing at the end of a program	Wide range of difficulty levels, representing the material as a whole

Adapted from the formative and summative evaluation tradition (Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus, 1971) and its extension to diagnostic and placement evaluation in the related educational evaluation literature.

Why this distinction matters

• All four are achievement tests, but their measurement purposes differ, so the scope of material and the difficulty level of their items also differ.
• A formative test used as though it were a summative test (or vice versa) can produce conclusions that don’t match its intended purpose.

Basic principles of achievement test construction

Five principles

1. Measure learning outcomes in line with the established learning objectives.
2. Measure a representative sample of material relative to all the material taught.
3. Choose the item format best suited to measuring the intended learning outcome.
4. Design the test according to its type and function (placement, formative, diagnostic, or summative).
5. Ensure reliability adequate for the intended decision-making function.

Adapted from Azwar (1987).

Steps in constructing an achievement test

Applying the Meeting 2 steps to achievement tests

• Meeting 2 covered eleven general steps in test construction. For achievement tests, the first two steps (identifying the purpose, defining the construct) take a more specific form.
• Step 1 (test purpose) — for an achievement test, this means determining which of the four types applies: placement, formative, diagnostic, or summative.
• Step 2 (construct definition) — for an achievement test, this means formulating the General Instructional Objective (GIO) and Specific Instructional Objectives (SIOs) for the material being measured.

General and specific instructional objectives

Two levels of objectives

• GIO (General Instructional Objective) — a broad competency scope, for example “students understand the principles of achievement testing”.
• SIO (Specific Instructional Objective) — breaks the GIO down into observable, measurable behaviors, using operational verbs from the taxonomy already covered in Meeting 3.

Example breakdown

GIO: “Students understand the principles of achievement testing.”

SIOs: (1) explain each principle in their own words; (2) match each principle with an example; (3) predict the consequences if a principle is violated.

Each of the SIOs above can already be translated directly into one or more test items.

Achievement test table of specifications

Crossing content with cognitive level

The achievement test table of specifications crosses content topics with cognitive process levels (Meeting 3), then determines the number of items in each cell:

Content topic	Remembering	Understanding	Applying	Total
Definition of achievement test terms	3	2		5
Achievement test construction principles		4	3	7
Types of achievement tests by function	2	3	2	7
Total	5	9	5	19

Format adapted from the achievement test table-of-specifications tradition (Azwar, 1987; Gronlund, 1993).

Serves the same function as the blueprint from Meeting 2

Note

This table is the concrete form of the blueprint discussed in Meeting 2, with two axes now made specific: content topic (from the GIO/SIOs) and cognitive level (from the Meeting 3 taxonomy).

Item formats: objective or essay

Two broad categories

• Objective items — multiple choice, true-false, matching, short answer. Scoring does not depend on the examiner’s subjective judgment.
• Essay items — answers are composed by the test-taker themselves; scoring requires criteria and examiner judgment.

Considerations for choosing an item format

The choice of item format depends on the nature of the learning outcome being measured. Learning outcomes that call for constructing arguments or lengthy explanations are better measured with essay items; learning outcomes involving recognizing facts or applying procedures can generally be measured more efficiently with objective items.

Item formats are discussed in more detail in Meeting 7.

Activity: identifying types of achievement tests

For each situation below, determine whether the test functions as placement, formative, diagnostic, or summative:

1. A test at the start of the semester to determine a participant’s English class level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced).
2. A short quiz at the end of each lecture session.
3. A final semester exam that determines the course grade.
4. A test given to students who repeatedly get the same topic wrong, to find out which part they haven’t mastered.

Answer key

1. Placement. (2) Formative. (3) Summative. (4) Diagnostic.

Summary

1. An achievement test measures learning outcomes and is tied to specific instructional material or objectives (Azwar, 1987).
2. There are four types of achievement tests by function: placement, formative, diagnostic, summative — each with a different scope of material and level of item difficulty.
3. The “test purpose” and “construct definition” steps from Meeting 2 take shape, for achievement tests, as determining the test type and formulating the GIO/SIOs.
4. The achievement test table of specifications is the blueprint that crosses content topics with the cognitive levels from Meeting 3.
5. The choice of item format (objective or essay) depends on the nature of the learning outcome being measured.

For Meeting 5

Next: aptitude tests

Meeting 5 covers aptitude tests, the second type of cognitive test from Meeting 1, which measure the capacity to learn something in the future rather than what has already been learned.

Thank you!😊

Any questions?

• amelia.zein@psikologi.unair.ac.id
• https://rameliaz.github.io/
• @rameliaz
• @rameliaz
• @rameliaz

These slides were prepared using and Quarto with a template from UNAIR Theme.

References

Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Azwar, S. (1987). Tes prestasi: Fungsi dan pengembangan pengukuran prestasi belajar. Liberty.

Bloom, B. S., Hastings, J. T., & Madaus, G. F. (1971). Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning. McGraw-Hill.

Gronlund, N. E. (1993). How to make achievement tests and assessments (5th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.