It is already known that tests are not the unique and the best way to assess students’ abilities. It is a misleading perception that some teachers have about measuring knowledge. There is another aspect as a matter of fact even worse, and it is the point that those kinds of teachers do not even take some time to design their “tests”. This issue is really worrying as tests have an impact on students’ learning motivation. It depends on the way how teachers design, apply and above all how they administer the results or in “real words” the grades. Let’s remember measuring achievement must be seen by students as a chance to show how much they have learned, or putting it clearer, tests must motivate students’ learning process.
In order to reach all that great and necessary impacts on students’ learning process teachers at the moment of designing tests have to establish a purpose, it means why such a test will be applied, the test has to have an object in. This is the complicated part in which most of teachers fail and they do just because they go directly to design the test but they forget the aim of assessing. There must be a connection between the test and real language test, it means that the test the teacher gives must connect with what is happening in class or with what could be useful in class. It is totally required that exists a cohesion between the test and the course. The student has to see how useful what is being evaluated in the test can be; and the starting point of this is the test design, it is the teacher’s responsibility. The educator in this way will be able to help students gain confidence at testing.
My point of view is that teachers have not to forget that there is always a purpose for everything and assessing is not the exception. Test must not be seen as the learning goal in the education process. And the key for this is the proper test design. To conclude assessment is of vital importance to both students and teachers. It tells instructors how many students have already achieved learning goals, who are the students struggling with their learning, and which activities or methods are more helpful than others.
