How to Make a 5th Grade Math Test
Designing a math test that accurately assesses the skills and knowledge of fifth-graders can be a daunting prospect. Teachers must take into account many factors, such as the material to be tested, difficulty level and amount of time available for the exam. Additionally, test configuration involves designing not only the test itself but also a fair and accurate key. Follow these steps to produce an effective and balanced fifth-grade math exam.
Instructions
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Determine the unit or units in which you wish to test students. For instance, the exam may be a midterm, encompassing a wide range of material from September to January. In fifth grade, such an exam could include topics such as place value, comparing and ordering numbers, perimeter, area, fractions, decimals or percents. Alternatively, you may be testing a single chapter, like rounding and estimation or measuring in the metric system.
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Analyze the selected material and pinpoint the most important skills and concepts that students will need for future learning. Make a list of these items; you will generate your exam problems from these skills and concepts.
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Create your own problems or select problems from reference material that are similar to those that students have solved in class. Choose problems at the same level of difficulty as ones that you may have shown in class as examples or assigned for class work or homework. Curriculum alignment -- matching exam content to content taught in class -- is a core tenet of quality instruction. Make the test too easy and you aren't truly assessing student learning; make the test too hard and students will become frustrated that they can't demonstrate their knowledge.
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Set a timer and take your test. This accomplishes three goals: gauging the amount of time you should allocate students for the exam, checking your problems to ensure they're solvable and producing a key. Expect fifth-graders to take three to four times as long to complete the exam as it took you. Add or delete problems as necessary to make the test fit into the allotted class period. When designing the key, assign point values to each problem based on its difficulty level. For instance, 4/3 divided by 2/3 should be worth more points than 4/3 divided by 3/2, because the former involves the extra step of cross-canceling or reducing to lowest terms, while the latter doesn't. Point values for all problems should be clearly marked on students' exams so that they can determine how much time to spend on each one.
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Procure any necessary materials, such as calculators or rulers. If you don't have enough for each student to have her own plan a fair system for sharing.
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References
- Photo Credit exam image by Petro Feketa from Fotolia.com
