Book Review on 《Standardized Test—Theory， Principle and Method》

Abstract： The book《Standardized Test—Theory， Principle and Method》 presents different elements of Standardized Test （ST for short） from different angles， such as designing of test papers， organization of pretest， implementation of ST etc. It is really a smart book for students and teachers.

Key words： Standardized Test； pretest； implementation； statistics

I Introduction

《Standardized Test—Theory， Principle and Method》 is a concise book which introduces various aspects of ST systematically. It was written by Professor Gui Shichun and published by Guangdong Higher Education Press in 1986. The whole book mainly contains 6 chapters and 3 appendices—196 pages in all.

II Main Content of This Book

The question how to make ST come true was raised in the late 1900s. Therefore， test designers， teachers， students and parents paid more attention to the following questions， such as what is ST， what are the characteristics of ST， how to organize ST， etc. It mainly contains 6 chapters.

Chapter 1 states the modernization of examination in detail. Firstly， the author analyses defects of examination. For example， the examination system can not match with education system very well； there is no clear purpose of examination； the standards and requirements of designing test paper are too changeable，etc.

Chapter 2 tries to solve the question what is ST. The author considers that there are some questions that should be paid attention to： such as clarifying the relationship between teaching and examination； clarifying the relationship between examination and evaluation； clarifying the relationship between establishment and use of standard， etc.

Chapter 3 mainly discusses how to design a ST paper. Firstly， the author investigates by what elements the style， content and ways of test are determined respectively. Then he discusses how to design subjective and objective items appropriately. In order to avoid the disadvantage of subjective items， we’d better control the extent of its use， improve the level of designing items and the way of making paper.

Chapter 4 introduces relevant aspects of a pretest， such as the purpose， process， organization and analysis establishing an item bank and test assembly. Among them analysis of examination questions is the center of a pretest， which includes analyzing the data from the sample paper， whether difficulty index and level of difficulty is ideal， whether power of discrimination is great enough， that is if a question could differentiate one student from another etc.

Chapter 5 presents a fairly significant phase of ST—the implementation of an examination， which includes the preparation of papers， organization of examination rooms and marking papers. A nice and clear paper is the most basic step of an examination， which could help examinees to keep a better mood.

III Characteristics of This Book

《Standardized Test—Theory， Principle and Method》is a useful and convenient book for the readers. In general， it has the following three characteristics：

1. It provides plentiful and comprehensive information about ST. The author introduces and explains most of the relevant aspects of ST， including definition， designing， pretest， implementation etc.

2. The whole book is easy to understand. In order to suit the needs of different readers， the author tries to adopt plain and pellucid words， and give typical examples and figures as many as possible.

3. The theory， principle and method introduced in this book are of high feasibility. The author divides the whole process of ST into several operable phases， which are quite simple and convenient to apply to practice for test designers， especially for teachers.

Ⅴ Disadvantages of This Book

It is natural that it is not a perfect book which has no disadvantages.

1. Some information and views are too old. Since the book was published in 1986， it is a little bit out-of-date in some aspects， especially when referring to computer technology.

2. Some issues are too general. This book is a brief introduction of all aspects of ST， so it just gives us a general idea instead of deep description.

Ⅵ Conclusion

In a word， although there are some disadvantages， 《Standardized Examination—Theory， Principle and Method》 is fairly an excellent book for all the language testers， including teachers and students. As an introduction book of ST， it’s quite authoritative and precious， so we should be grateful for the author’s efforts.

參考文獻(xiàn)：

[1]桂詩春.標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化考試—理論、原則與方法 [M].廣東：廣東高等教育出版社，1986

[2]王樹槐，王群.《翻譯教學(xué)—從研究到課堂：教師手冊(cè)》評(píng)介 [J].《外國語》第1期，2006

[3]楊仙菊.中介語語用學(xué)研究的新成果—《第二語言的語用發(fā)展》評(píng)介 [J].《渝西學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)》第4期， 2005