Chapter 4, Problem 1Q

Summary Introduction

Concept introduction

Any objective assessment tool, such as a clinical assessment or an educational test, must have three main elements: standardization, reliability, and validity. A reliable test is able to give the same score across different situations. On the other hand, validity tends to measure the degree to which a test would assess what it intends to. These elements make a test useful and functional.

Explanation of Solution

Suggested responses

In schools, the tests that are used to assess the student's academic knowledge and aptitude in specific subjects are known as standardized tests. Some of these standardized tools, such as SATs, tend to evaluate a student's academic score to match their performance with a corresponding university.

School tests ought to be reliable in the sense that, if the student takes the same test twice in the same day or after a gap of a month, the score should not deviate from the original score.

These tests also tend to be valid because they aim to measure a specific aspect of a student's knowledge, intelligence or aptitude, such as verbal intelligence or mathematical intelligence. If a test claims to measure the reasoning ability of a child, it should have items related to reasoning ability only. This is known as content validity.

There are several online tests that claim to assess IQ or personality, and are freely available. However, the extent to which they are reliable or valid is debatable. Some tests, especially the ones that are easy to access, appear to have face validity but may not guarantee actual validity and reliability. When taking an online test, it is important to take suggestions from academic professionals to choose more reliable tools.