Are Test Preparation Programs Really Effective? What
Teachers Should Learn about Standardized Tests
Hari
Menon
Concern
about standards in English language testing seems to be a recent phenomenon,
while standards in test preparation program seem to have attracted virtually no
attention. Many standardized tests are available throughout the world. As
teachers have access to certain standardized scores for students, they may
wonder what the scores really mean. Students may bring the scores of
standardized tests to their teacher and ask questions about what their scores
mean or ask advice about how they can improve their scores. Students may also
ask which test they should take for a certain purpose. In these cases, teachers
will need to know what the purposes of these tests are and what the results
mean.
English
language teachers should be aware of the most common standardized tests: What
they are like, what they are actually testing, and generally what their scores
mean. However, it is not possible to know all standardized tests, since there
are so many of them. Moreover, these tests are often changed, adapted or
modified to meet the current demands or even in the near future, so even if you
know the current ones, the situation may change. However, teachers should
always be aware of the major tests and know where to get information about
these tests and how to interpret that information. It is important to
understand standardized tests and interpret their scores correctly, so that
students can be helped and teachers can improve their own instruction.
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Menon, H. (2003,
October). Are test preparation programs really effective? What teachers
should learn about standardized tests. Paper presented at the 51st TEFLIN
International Conference,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email: eltindonesia@yahoo.com