ISC Paper Template in A4 (V1) Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 120 Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning is licensed under A Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. ASSESSMENT OF TESTS CONSTRICTED BY EFL TEACHERS FOR SECONDARY STAGE STUDENTS AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT Mohammad Dayij Alqomoul1) 1) Tafila Technical University, Jordan E-mail: qomoul1957@gmail.com Abstract. The study aimed to estimate the tests constructed by EFL teachers for the secondary stage students in Tafila Directorate of Education and investigating its effect on the students' achievement. The subject of the study consists of all the teachers who teach English language for secondary stage students in Tafila Directorate of Education with a total number of (102 male and female teachers). Six English test papers were chosen intentionally as a sample of the study (3 represents the first secondary class and 3 for the second secondary class). The sample was chosen by the researcher, as it is considered as a cross- representative of all the tests prepared by English language teachers for the secondary stage. The selected sample was applied to two groups of students (20 males and 20 females) from two different schools. Through the results obtained, it was found that the type of the questions has a significant impact on students' achievement. The significance was in favor of the objective questions. Finally, the study touched on some constructive suggestions and recommendations that may interest all who are involved in the educational process. Keywords: Assessment; Tests; EFL teachers; Achievement; Secondary Stage I. INTRODUCTION One of the most important goals of teaching English in Jordan is to enable students use this language in real life situations and express themselves easily and freely. In order to achieve this goal, school exams must be more communicative so that all the four language skills should be represented in them. Therefore, teachers must actually test what has been taught. They must first analyze the content of the textbooks, taking into account the desired goals, before preparing the test papers. Tests are very important for teachers because they determine the extent to which goals are achieved. They also provide the teacher with the extent to which students have progressed in comprehending the material and the amount of grades they achieved. (Genesee, 1998). However, the focus in this paper will be based on the tests and the nature of the testing process, taking into account the tests prepared by English language teachers in public sector schools in Tafila Governorate. Tests are of great importance in the educational process, simply because they help decision makers in educational institutions to take the right decisions. It is a continuous process as it directs all educational activities, programs and objectives, because it includes all the elements of instruction (Hughes, 1999). The tests are not limited to one stage of education, but rather include all the programs of the learning process from its beginning till the end. It enables the examiners to put values or give judgment about certain issues and helps decision makers to adopt or correct decisions. Making the right decisions often requires real data, and these data are closely related to the correct decisions, so it must be measured and verified accurately (Greenland, 1992) Some educators define tests as systematic procedures for measuring a sample of behavior or trait. This means that the tests are prepared, administered and scored according to prescribed rules. Since the tests are widely used in the classroom, the decisions that are made on the results of these tests are important, and since the teacher is the one who puts these tests in the classroom, the assessment of the tests then becomes an important and crucial matter (Anderson, 1991). Some studies have revealed that test makers often ignore the rules and guidelines that govern the construction of tests (Floughter, 2004). A part from technical troubles, tests suffer from multiple biases. These multiple biases of tests have multiple sources as well, including exam application, environment, test instructions or accompanying directions, in addition to the level of goals measured by these tests (Fross, 2005). It may also be biased to some portions of the content (Power, 2003). Some other studies have shown that the tests are biased towards the correct answer in some test items, especially those in which include selective answers. One study confirmed that the ratio of correct answers to wrong answers was 1-6 (Wetrogan, 2006). There are even some studies which found that the tests were biased to the lowest level of the cognitive domain (David, 1990). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ mailto:qomoul1957@gmail.com Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 121 However, the researcher believes, through his long experience in teaching and testing fields, that setting the exam is not an easy or simple process. It actually requires an experienced teacher who is able to analyze the content of the material and determine the objectives of the test in advance before constructing the test itself. Study Problem We all know the importance of school exams as they play an important role in the teaching-learning process. Since they express learning outcomes and has a relationship with the elements involved in the educational process, and also give a reliable picture of all involved in the teaching- learning process, the teacher, the learner, and the curriculum designer ... etc. Therefore, this study came to assess the shortcomings suffered by English language teachers in general and secondary school teachers in particular. Some English language teachers are actually unable to prepare reliable and good tests. This was evident from the sample tests attached within this paper, which were deliberately chosen to meet the objectives of this study. However, the researcher has found, through his long experience in teaching and educational supervision that English language teachers in public sector schools in Tafila Directorate of Education are unable to construct good tests, especially those who are newly appointed to teaching profession. There are those who hold negative attitudes about the assessment process and exams. In addition, some of those teachers have a clear weakness on how to build, administer and implement exams. Therefore, the problem of the study can be summarized in the following points: • Difficulty of writing good test items, whether it is in language functions or in its grammar and comprehension. • Using the exercises in the Student's Book or in the Activity Book when writing the exams. • Inability to cover all the contents of the school subject in the tests. • Ignorance of the main test elements such as: test validity, test reliability, and test practicality. • Ignorance with regard to the distribution of marks on the test items. Causes of the Problem In addition to the causes mentioned in the problem section, it is necessary to add some others that the researcher considers to be a problem for secondary school English language teachers, which often makes them feel that they are in a dilemma. These causes could be summarized in the following: • The nature of the teaching process. • Lack of motivation for teachers. • Lack of training programs and workshops. • Lack of experience, especially for newly appointed teachers. Study Questions The study attempts to answer the following two questions: • What are the troubles faced EFL teachers when preparing their classroom tests? • Does the type of questions (objective or subjective) affect the students' achievement? Study Purpose There are various causes of the problem, which, however, are more general in nature, and less important and must be taken into account if the problem is to be covered comprehensively. However, the paper will provide some suggested points that may contribute to helping English language teachers in general and secondary school teachers in particular to prepare good school tests. Significance of the Study The significance of the study lies in the fact that it attempts to shed light on the importance of building credible tests that cover the basic elements of the English language, especially the functions, vocabulary and structures. The importance of this study also lies in the fact that it attempts to evaluate the tests constructed by English language teachers who teach in public schools in Tafila Governorate. It also discusses the troubles that face the teachers when they try to write their exams. The study may provide the teachers with a balanced weight for each language component. It is also very important, as it deals with the issue of tests of all kinds, which are often aimed to assess the entire teaching process and the extent to which students have progressed in their comprehension and understanding of the material. Finally, I could say that this study is actually significant since it confirms the need to develop training programs and workshops which aim at improving the performance of English language teachers when preparing their written tests. Literature Review In this part, I will review some ideas, opinions, and studies that support and reinforce the topic addressed in this study. Objectives of Testing The following are the main objects of testing: • Tests are used to classify students, as it is the tests that determine the students’ proficiency in different language skills. • Tests are the appropriate tool that determines the strengths and weaknesses of students. Diagnostic tests are often sub-tests consisting of short items that measure the different components of the language and also determine the students' proficiency in any of these elements. It gives a clear profile for each student and the extent of his achievement in any of the areas that were tested. • Tests measure students' readiness to learn. As some of them may give us some predictions about the future of student achievement. Therefore, tests can be used to assess the expected abilities of students. Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 122 • Tests are also used to measure the extent to which teaching objectives have been achieved. As the achievement tests e.g. progress tests and final examinations are the tools that used to indicate the extent to which individuals and groups are progressing towards the desired goals, programs and activities. • Tests are used to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and the methods that the teacher uses in presenting the material to the students. As some achievement tests are also used in scientific researches to measure the difference between the achievement of experimental and control groups. To facilitate the previous points, they can be classified according to the following main headings: • Students' readiness and motivation. • General proficiency. • Achievement. The first point deals with the individual abilities of each student in terms of acquiring different language skills. As for general proficiency tests, they often give us some indications about the learner's efficiency, whether it is at the present or in the future. Achievement tests often give us an indication of the learner's ability to acquire a skill or information through formal learning situation (David, 1999). Characteristics of a Good Test A good test must be characterized by three qualities: validity, reliability and practicality. The tests we use must be consistent with the goals we seek, and they must be applicable to our situation. Without these three components, tests are often a waste of time and effort. A teacher must be fully aware of the meaning of each of the three concepts if he is to prove that he is on the right track in his instruction (David, 1999). Now, I'll explain these three concepts briefly. Test Validity When we address the issue of test validity, the following two questions must be answered: What does the test measure? How does the test accurately measure what it is designed to measure? A test is actually valid if it measures accurately what it is intended to measure. However, there are a number of validations. I am going to address some of these validations which I think help to answer the above questions. • Content validity: If this test actually measures the content of the subject to be measured, then it can be said that this test is related to the content that was introduced to learners. • Contrast validity: This means that the test should measure all the abilities that the learners supposed to have acquired. • Face validity: This also means that the test appears to the observers, whether they are (students, teachers, or parents...) have absolute confidence in it (David, 1990). Reliability The reliability of the test simply means the stability of its results if it is used repeatedly. A test is considered reliable if the students reach the same mark for the same test in different times and places. The test is also reliable if the students get the same mark with different markers. However, if the test is not reliable the results are often not reliable too, and it would not give a true picture of the students' abilities. We can say that the valid test is reliable but not the vice versa. However, when writing our tests we must make a kind of balance between validity and reliability (David, 1990). Practicality The third point that must be taken into account when preparing any test is the cost, the time, and effort it needs. We may prepare a lot of tests that may be valid and reliable, but they are beyond the scope of our abilities and available capabilities. So, the following points should be taken into account when preparing any test. • Everyone knows that exams is an expensive process. Therefore, when we prepare any test, we must take into account the cost of each copy, the availability of the required textbooks, the number of participants in the process and the scorers needed to complete the correction process, the more number we need the more costly the process becomes. • The clearer the test instructions are, the easier the task will be, and this helps the test administrators to complete their task quickly and efficiently. The marking system also plays a major role, especially when the number of participants is large, then we can judge the objectivity or subjectivity of the exam (David, 1990). II. LITERATURE REVIEW Now, I'll review some of the previous reports and studies which I believe tackled the effect of teachers' questions on the students' learning and achievement. Perkins (2003) analyzed two types of EFL tests. These two types were, one of them used objective questions e.g. (true-false and multiple-choice), while the other used essay questions e.g. (missing letters and grammar) The sample was consisted of 19 Egyptian students studying at the American University in Cairo and enrolled in the intermediate level of English as a foreign language. This sample was randomly distributed into four groups. The first group was tested using questions of true-false type, the second group was tested with multiple-choice questions, the third was tested with gap-filling type, and the fourth group was tested with questions related to linguistic structures. All respondents were asked to read a text consisting of 232 words taken from their prescribed textbooks. The results showed that the groups who were tested with objective questions had better results than those who were tested with essay questions. Redfield (2001) conducted a study aimed at measuring the effect of teachers' questions on students' achievement. In this study, he reviewed more than twenty studies in which teachers used questions of higher Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 123 application questions. Such questions require the learner to process and analyze the information and then find an appropriate answer. The review of these studies revealed that teachers' use of high-level cognitive questions had a positive impact on students' achievement. Kniep and Grossman (2001) summarized some studies where they found that students' achievement is better when teachers use high-level questions. For example, Ryan (1999) compared high and low level questions to fifth and sixth graders, where he found that high-level questions compared to low-level questions lead to better achievement. Tollefson (2000) reviewed and summarized the results of some studies that were investigating the relationship between teachers' questions and students' learning. The results came to the following: • The cognitive complexity of the students' responses was largely affected by the cognitive complexity of the teachers' questions. • Recalling and recognition questions that have low level of cognitive processing generally require simpler responses than that of higher level questions. There are some researchers who emphasized that low- level questions have a significant impact on students' achievement, for example, Flicker and Dabra (2004) investigated the effect of different levels of adjunct questions on the students' learning. 93 junior psychology students at the University of Petersburg were randomly assigned to three groups, the first group received verbal questions, the second group received practical level questions, and the third group, the control group, received adjunct questions only. The results showed that the group that received oral comprehension questions performed better than the other two groups. The previously mentioned opinions can be summarized as follows: Some studies, such as the study of (Redfield, 2001, and Kneipp and Crosman, 2001) indicated that low level questions often have a significant impact on students' learning and achievement. Whereas, some other studies indicated that the high-level questions had a greater impact on students' learning and achievement, such as the study of (Flickr and Debra, 2004). However, there are a few studies that did not find any significant difference due to the different level of questions. Lilanhun (2014) conducted a study in which he tried to discover the challenges that teachers face in constructing exams in some schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (two private schools and one state school). The sample consisted of 85 teachers and 80 students from the first and second secondary grades. The researcher used a questionnaire consisting of 30 items to collect his data. The study concluded that most of the teachers do not have knowledge on how to build the tests and inability to deal with the guide of test instructions and their controlling mechanism of paper instruction of a test is very weak. Johnson (2015), presented a paper talking about the challenges that university professors face when preparing remedial exams for their students. It was concluded that many university professors also lack the experience and training necessary to build good tests, although they do the teaching process convincingly. The researcher summarized the challenges that professors face in writing a good test as follows: • Most of the questions focus on knowledge of facts. • Some questions may be vague or unclear. • Tests are short and insufficient to cover the content. • The number of implemented tests does not give a complete picture of knowledge and skills that students have learned. • Lack of feedback. Rashid (2016), conducted a study on the difficulties that teachers face while preparing their school exams. The researcher used a questionnaire consisting of 30 items, which he distributed to the study members, consisting of 118 male and female teachers in the government schools in Riyadh. After collecting the data, the researcher concluded that the teachers face difficulties while preparing the exams, including: • Deficiency in the ability to analyze the content. • Deficiency in defining educational and behavioral goals. • Deficiency in designing a table of good test specifications. • Deficiency in building appropriate achievement tests and producing the examination paper in an appropriate manner. The study found statistically significant differences in all areas of research in favor of teachers with literary background. The study also found that there are statistically significant differences in terms of the difficulties that teachers face in the fields of goal formulation and test writing in favor of the teachers with high cumulative averages (good, very good). Sheila (2021), conducted a study on the challenges faced by newly appointed teachers when preparing their exams. She interviewed five teachers. Through the interview, she found that the new teachers face five problems while preparing their school exams, including: inability to determine the topics that must be tested, difficulty in choosing test items for questions that require multiple choice, and students are sometimes unable to understand the test items, difficulty in managing test time, and difficulty in convincing students that they will pass without trying to cheat or asking for help from their parents. However, with reference to the results of previous studies, I could say that evaluation is a vital part of the teaching and learning process that must be well planned and given sufficient time to prepare its tools. The real criterion for any new approaches or methods must be based on making students work on performing tasks that are meaningful and valuable to them. They must appear as learning activities in which students practice higher-order thinking skills, at the same time, the students must participate in evaluating themselves to know the extent of their progress towards the goals. Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 124 III. METHODS This study aims to analyze and evaluate the tests constructed by English language teachers for the secondary stage in public sector schools in the Tafila Directorate of Education. The study subject consisted of all English language teachers who are enrolled in the public sector and teach secondary stage in the governorate. The number is estimated at 102 male and female teachers. The sample is a collection of six school exams written by the teachers; three for fist secondary class and three for second secondary. The tests were analyzed and examined by the researcher to discover the troubles that face the teachers when writing their school exams. The tests were actually collected intentionally to fit the purpose of the study. Three of exams were done by female teachers and others were done by males. All of the targeted teachers were holding a BA in English language and literature. They only have an experience of 1-3 years in teaching English for the secondary stage. Three tests were administered in the first semester 2020/2021, and others were administered during the second semester 2020/2021. The researcher analyzed and scrutinized everything related to these tests with regard to the content, the type of questions, the distribution of marks on the various items, the time given to answer the questions, and even the type of paper and handwriting of each test. These tests were then applied to two groups of students (20 males and 20 females). After collecting the data, it was calculated and analyzed using the SPSS program. The results showed that the achievement of the students on the objective questions was better than that of the essay questions. The following are six samples of school tests that were written and implemented by a group of teachers who teach English for the secondary stage in public sector schools in Tafila Governorate. These forms were deliberately selected to give you a representative and a clear picture of the tests prepared by English language teachers for the first and second secondary grades in Tafila Directorate of Education. A classroom test constructed by a teacher of English for first secondary class at a public school in Tafila Directorate of Education. The test was administered during the first semester, 2020/2021. Examine the content, marking, handwriting … etc. Fig.1 Test of first secondary class A classroom test composed by a teacher of English for second secondary class at a public school in Tafila Directorate of Education. The test was administered in the first semester 2020/2021. See the content, allocation of marks … etc. Fig. 2 Test of second secondary class Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 125 A classroom test constructed by a teacher of English for the first secondary class at a public school in Tafila directorate of Education. The test was administered at the second semester 2020/2021. Examine the content, handwriting, spelling mistakes (underlined words) … etc. Fig.3 Test of first secondary class A classroom test constructed by a teacher of English for the second secondary class at a public school in Tafila Directorate of Education. The test was administered in the second semester 2020/2021. Examine the content, spelling mistakes (underlined words), and type of questions … etc. Fig.4 Test of second secondary class A classroom test constructed by a teacher of English for the first secondary class in Tafila Directorate of Education. The test was administered in the first semester 2020/2021. Examine the content, type of questions, marking scheme is not provided. Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 126 Fig.5 Test of first secondary class A classroom test constructed by a teacher of English for the second secondary class at a public school in Tafila Directorate of Education. The test was administered in the second semester 2020/2021. Examine the content, distribution of marks, handwriting … etc. Fig. 6 Test of second secondary class The researcher applied these models of tests on two groups of students who were randomly selected from two different schools (20 female students from the first secondary grade) and (20 male students from the second secondary grade). The aim of this procedure was to measure the extent of achievement from the students on these tests with regard to the type of questions given to them. Through the data obtained by the researcher after the completion of the test, he found that the achievement of students for both groups was better with regard to objective questions than that of essay questions, and this is clearly evident in table 1 below. TABLE 1 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENTS ACCORDING TO THE TYPE OF QUESTION Student Type of Question Means Standard Deviation Male Female Essay Test Objective Test Essay Test Objective Test 10.5000 13.1000 10.9000 13.8500 1.73205 2.40394 1.61897 2.05900 Total Essay Test Objective Test 10.7000 13.4750 1.66718 2.24165 Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 127 When comparing students' achievement for both groups (males and females), we find that there is a statistically significant difference in favor of objective questions over essay questions, as shown in Table 2 below. TABLE 2 COMPARISON BETWEEN ESSAY AND OBJECTIVE TESTS AND ITS EFFECTS ON STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT Source Sum of Squares df Mean Squares F Sig. Student 6.612 1 6.612 1.691 .197 Type of Ques. 154.012 1 154.012 39.391 .000 Sts * Type of Ques. .612 1 .612 157 .693 Error 279.150 76 3.910 Total 12147.000 80 Corrected Total 458.387 79 a. Squared = .352 (Adjusted R. Squared = .326 IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION By analyzing and examining the above test samples which were deliberately chosen by the researcher in order to give a representative and honest picture of what is going on in our schools with regard to test building. However, the researcher noticed that the EFL teachers in public sector in Tafila governorate, when preparing school exams, suffer from the following: • Although one of the most important roles of the teacher as a teacher is not only teaching but also evaluating what he teaches. There are many of those who can present the material to students but fail to evaluate what is being taught to them. • Teaching and testing is a complementary process. What is taught must be tested. The teacher is required to teach what he tests and to test what he teaches. Some teachers do not take into account the instructional objectives when writing test items. • Most of the tests constructed by the teachers focus on recognition but not production. • The teacher's guide is often empty of any sample tests that teachers can refer to when constructing their school tests. • Teachers do not have any theoretical background regarding the construction of tests, and this is often attributed to the lack or scarcity of courses given to teachers at universities. • Most of the training programs and workshops that are provided to in-service teachers by the Ministry of Education are missing of topics related to the construction of tests. • Teachers tend to construct tests that are easily built and easily corrected, regardless of their comprehensiveness to the material taught to students. • Most teachers in the field do not cooperate with educational supervisors on how to construct school tests. • Teachers often complain that the pass and fail instructions imposed on them by the Ministry of Education limit their freedom and procedures while executing their exams. The results should be for the sake of the students, all of them must succeeds. • Therefore, teachers see that the entire testing process is useless and unfair. • Finally, teachers often view English language as a school subject that must be taught, and forget that they are dealing with a language that can be used in different real life situations. Discussion This study aims to analyze and evaluate the tests prepared by English language teachers for secondary school students in the Tafila Directorate of Education. The study also attempts to measure the effect of the type of questions (subjective or objective) prepared by English language teachers on students' achievement. When reviewing the first test paper attached to this study, we find that most of the exam items are almost the same for all teachers. These items, which are chosen by teachers, are usually taken from textbooks of activities and exercises that students practice when they prepare themselves for a test in the subject. Therefore, most of the teachers do not practice any kind of creativity when they put their tests, and often choose one type of simple questions that are easy to evaluate and correct, such as correcting a verb, filling in a blank or matching ...etc. As for the other types that express students’ understanding and ability to process language in a creative way, they are often rare or even absent, such as: inversion, paragraphing the language, and writing composition that reflect student’s ability to use the language effectively. Language functions are often neglected by teachers even though everyone knows that the functions are real fields where linguistic structures are genuinely used. That is why we find that most of the linguistic functions are not included in the test forms attached to this study, such as: advice, apology, polite request, description, expressing a complaint, asking for information and giving information ...etc. All of these language functions are available in the English language courses for secondary school students and constitute a reasonable part of the content in the students' textbooks. However, not all content is represented in these tests, there is only much stress on vocabulary and structures. Different language skills are also not focused on in the enclosed tests, so it is difficult to trust them, that is, face Journal of Education, Teaching, and Learning Volume 8 Number 1 March 2023. Page 120-129 p-ISSN: 2477-5924 e-ISSN: 2477-8478 128 validity is absent. Teachers' handwriting is also poor and not clear, there are punctuation, grammatical and spelling mistakes. Test instructions are often not clear to students, and marking scheme is another problem. The distribution of marks on the test items is often unfair and unsatisfactory for the examinees, e.g. five marks are divided by three items or four marks are given to six items … etc. Sometimes, we find that an answer which require only one word is given three marks, while on the other hand, we find that there is an answer that requires the student to write several lines is only given one mark. This, shows clearly that the marking scheme adopted by the teachers is normally unfair, incorrect and finally not objective. There are some people who believe that teacher-made tests cause some problems to students and often negatively affect their achievement and attitudes toward the subject (Perkins, 2013). Parents often feel that it is difficult to know the real level of their children and even unable to determine the best way to help them to improve their skills and understanding of the subject they are studying (Williams, 1999). However, if we are able to identify the types of tests that teachers construct inside the classroom, we may find many defects and contradicts in them, especially with regard to achieving the goals of the curriculum and the methods and strategies that teachers follow in teaching. The extent to which these tests cover the high level of cognitive domain and the content of students' syllabuses becomes an important necessity in this respect. If we take a look at the students' achievement on the tests that were presented to them and through the statistical analysis that was shown in Tables (1) and (2), the researcher noticed that the students' achievement on objective questions was much better than that of essay questions. Where there was a statistically significant difference in favor of objective questions for both groups (males and females). In the researcher's point of view, the reason can be attributed to the fact that students generally prefer questions that need recognition more than that which require memorization and recalling. However, this study differs from the studies and opinions mentioned in this paper, as it focused on the purely technical troubles that English language teachers face in Tafila Directorate of Education. The most important of these technical troubles are: the distribution of marks on the test items, the linguistic and grammatical errors, and the poor handwriting, which is difficult to be read or understood by the examinees. Besides, many teachers in this stage also suffer from administering, organizing and producing the test paper in a proper way. V. CONCLUSION We all know that tests and evaluation are among the most important elements of the teaching-learning process. Therefore, constructing tests is not a random process, but rather requires an experienced teacher and proper planning. Through my work in the teaching profession and the practice of educational supervision in public schools for more than thirty years, I have noticed that many teachers suffer a lot of troubles when it comes to setting good school exams. As many of them often are unable to write a test, especially those newly appointed teachers, simply because they are unable to analyze the contents of the books they are teaching. Some of these teachers are even ignorant of the purpose of the testing process. However, making exams is beneficial for both teachers and students. Through tests, teachers can identify their students' abilities, in addition to their progress in the subject and their classification. The results of the tests also help the teachers to develop suitable educational methods and strategies that are consistent with the abilities and levels of students and also appropriate to the nature of the subjects they are teaching. On the other hand, tests are very useful for students as well, they give them an indication of their comprehension, understanding and progress in the subjects they are studying. Besides, the results of the tests give decision-makers the feedback that helps them make the right decisions regarding the development, modification or cancellation of any school curriculum. VI. RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the results of the study and after reviewing and investigating the attached test models, the researcher recommended the following: • Teachers must review and analyze the content of the books before writing their tests. • Teachers must diversify their tests items in order to reach a balanced weight for all language components. • Teachers should not choose their test items from the students' Activity books because these exercises and drills are only for students' training and practice not for testing. • Teachers must be provided with modern individual computers to type their test questions instead of using handwriting which is often poor or unclear. • Teachers must adopt a fair and balanced marking scheme, that is, a correct mark for the correct item. • English language supervisors must be consulted and shared the teachers when constructing their school tests. • The Ministry of Education must provide teachers, especially the newly appointed ones, with good sample tests to guide them when writing their own school tests. • The Ministry of Education should hold annual training workshops aimed at helping teachers in building objective, valid, and practical tests. 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