ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors begin with educational measurement in terms of assessments carried out by a teacher or examiner. The golden rule—more honoured in the breach than the observance—that should be applied to the planning of all examinations is that they should mirror exactly the objectives of the course to which they are related. Some kinds of educational measurement—assessing competence in art and crafts or in setting up experiments in a laboratory for example—clearly call for tests of a practical kind. The length of an examination must obviously depend, in part, upon the age and ability of the pupils involved, and the number of separate questions that it contains may vary according to whether it is designed as a 'speed' or a 'power' test. Objective tests have been used mainly in primary schools and as part of the eleven-plus examination administered at the end of the primary school course.
