Validation of objective-type test in biology at secondary school level

Abstract Evaluation should not only depict the real state of students’ achievements but also help to improve teaching learning process. Test should be more valid and reliable. The system of the examination and the nature of the test in Pakistan need a thorough change and improvement. In order to improve the situation the Federal Ministry of Education developed objective type tests in the subject of Biology but these tests have not been tried out in the field to establish uniformity of standard, reliability and validity, although need for such a practice was felt at the time of development and publication of these tests. In the present study, a part of these has been tried out for the purpose of education. A number of 48 students of two schools in Lahore were taken as sample. Scores were tabulated and item difficulty and item discrimination index indices were calculated. The results of the study show that the test on the whole has exhibited poor validity as far as the difficulty level and discriminating index are concerned. It has been found out that the tests need revision and must be tried out on a larger sample.