ABSTRACT
This paper raises an issue which is of fundamental importance in the assessment of learning. Should tests be designed to discriminate among individuals so that a rank order of students’ performance can be drawn up, or should testing concentrate on the evaluation of group performance after instruction according to some absolute criterion? Generally speaking tests and examinations in Great Britain are concerned with ranking students. This applies to most school examinations, to all selection examinations and to GCE examinations, although in the latter case some might consider that this is not so. And yet this approach to testing is arguably quite inappropriate to the assessment of learning following a course of instruction.
