A Closer Look in a Literature Test

I saw it for the second time but this time, with a different purpose.

Back then, before I become a Literature student, I have prayed hard as I faced this
examination. I really want to be a Literature major. I didn’t mind before how this exam
was constructed, the important thing was to answer each item correctly as much as
possible.

Now, I was acquainted again in this exam, this time, for me to evaluate, to analyze and
to react on how it was constructed.

I have observed several good qualities of this examination and they are as follows:

 The test has a clear direction.

The direction given in the test is very understandable. It does not state to
write the students’ answers on the answer sheets, rather, it tells the students to
write the LETTER of their answer. If the instruction only is to write the answer, it
would be ambiguous for the students whether to write the answer or the word or
only the letter.

 The test has a page number and a continuous numbering.

A page number is important in a test since it shows if the students got the
right and exact number of pages. It also gives the students the idea to what
page are they going to answer the test. A continuous numbering is also
important because it shows up to what number is the exam and for the students
to

 The test does not only focus on literary concepts but also in literary application.
The test asks for literary concepts like who is the central character in a
fiction (Item 1), what is a fourteen-line poem (Item 7) and the test also asks
questions like deriving meaning from the poem given (Item 28-55) and
understanding a play (Item 18-27), and an excerpt of a story and an essay (Item
56-79). I have observed that there are more items for literary application than
the literary concept which is really good since the test is intended for students
who want to take AB/BSE Literature. If the test will focus only on literary
concepts, it would be unfair for students who do not have a good literature
background and who were not acquainted with those literary concepts but know
how to understand and appreciate a literary piece.
  The test has homogenous choices.
According to Prof. Duque (2008), who was my professor in Measurement
and Evaluation back in college, the choices in a test should be homogenous so
that students will not answer the question easily and will be critical in choosing
from the given options. In Item No. 5, the question is “What is the unravelling of
the plot?” and the choices are climax, denouement, initial action and falling
action. All of the choices are the stages of a plot so in this question, the students
will try to eliminate from the given options to arrive at their final answer.

I just suggest that the choices should be alphabetically arranged so that students will
not think that there is a pattern in the exam.

On the whole, I can say that this literary test is a good test since all of the items in this
examination adhere to its objective—to select qualified students for AB/BSE Literature.