ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the particular role, function and nature of external assessment and examinations. Two important, recurrent themes that arise when discussing external assessment and examinations are validity and reliability. These two concepts, together with the agencies, regulat ions and processes involved in ensuring consistency in these two areas. External assessment and examinations are generally considered to be forms of summative assessment. There are two important methods used extensively in summative assessment that teachers need to be familiar with, namely norm-referenced assessment and criterion-referenced assessment. Norm-referenced assessment has been used extensively throughout the British education system. In norm-referenced assessment, the value of, or grade related to, any mark awarded depends on how it compares with the marks of other candidates sitting the same assessment. Criterion-referenced assessment, on the other hand, is concerned with what a candidate can do without reference to the performance of others, and so it provides an alternative method to address the limitations of norm-referencing.
