Introduction
Everyone has been tested at least once in their life. Testing is defined as the process of obtaining data on knowledge, psychological operations, public opinion, and so on. That is, by performing tests, it is possible to evaluate the preparation of students or conduct a social survey, and testing can also be applied in various sciences, such as information technology. Even though tests are, in some cases, quite convenient for testing students’ knowledge and conducting different kinds of surveys, I still do not consider this tool to be successful.
My Experience
My experience consists of completing test tasks at school and college and answering some sociological surveys. I often coped with the tests quite successfully, but I still think using open-ended questions in training programs is more effective. There is an element of randomness in testing. For example, a student who has not answered a simple question may give the correct answer to a more complex one. This may be a random error in the first question or guessing the answer in the second. This distorts the test results and leads to the need to consider the probabilistic component in their analysis (Shohami, 2005). In this direction, it can be concluded that the tests negatively impacted the verification of the training results. In addition, tests that are conducted by various services as surveys of the population about any aspect may also be ineffective. For example, when answering questions on the Internet, people can choose any answer without thinking about the results. As a result, the people conducting the survey receive unreliable data.
The Main Functions of Tests
The tests were designed to diagnose the level of knowledge of students. For testers, this is the fastest and easiest way to check students’ preparation levels. For the test-takers, this is both a positive and a negative type of control. Students tend to guess the answers, which is more accessible than questions containing honest answers (Brown, 2010). This harms the final result of their training. The tests were also designed to maintain discipline, as students know that a test awaits them ahead, and yet some of them are trying to prepare. Moreover, the test does not allow checking and evaluating high, productive levels of knowledge related to creativity, that is, probabilistic, abstract, and methodological knowledge.
Testing was an obligatory part of knowledge control, and I tried to prepare carefully for various tests. Based on the test results, I can conclude that I often made the right and accurate decisions. It is much more challenging to check the results of sociological survey tests because the results are hidden from the test takers. As a result of the tests passed, I noted that for an untrained student, such knowledge control is the most successful solution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, testing is one of the most popular testing knowledge and public opinion types. This type of control is widely used in various fields of human knowledge and makes it possible to check how practical the training was quickly. Even though this tool is still actively used in schools, colleges, and universities, it is not effective in absolute knowledge control. The data obtained by the teacher as a result of testing, although it includes information about gaps in knowledge in specific sections, does not allow us to judge the causes of these gaps.
References
Brown, D. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. Pearson.
Shohami, E. (2005). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests. Routledge.