A series of short answer questions and learner selected responses, usually used to assess a learner's underpinning knowledge or understanding. Best suited to:

• off the job environments, but may be used
• on the job, in a quiet area away from noise or disruptions.

• a useful tool for generating evidence to supplement other types of assessment
• useful where assessment methods are restricted due to safety requirements or infrequent occurrence of specified events / activities
• useful for assessing underpinning knowledge and understanding
• test conditions can be standardised for skills tests
• time for testing can be allocated

• individuals can react differently in test situations
• often removed from realistic work situations
• tests need to be well planned and structured so that they are actually testing what they aim to assess

When you start to prepare a test decide on the unit(s)of competency that you are assessing and then write or design questions that best assess them. The following is a list of the different types of questions / items you may choose:

define, describe, identify, label, match, name, outline, reproduce, select, state, convert, estimate, explain, compute, solve, illustrate, compile

identify, label, illustrate, diagrams

match, diagrams, categorise

convert, explain, infer, predict, summarise, change, compute, predicts, solve,diagram

When you develop questions you should consider developing an item bank. An item bank is a file of test questions that makes it possible to develop a good test with minimal time and effort. All available test questions can be stores by topic. Sets of instructions or directions can be added and the item bank can be updated easily.

• prepare clear and concise instructions
• include easier as well as difficult questions (arrange questions in order of difficulty)
• use separate answer sheets to retain test questions for future use and to make marking easier
• keep the language and numeracy skills of the learners in mind when writing the questions

A short answer item is a question used to find out about what the learner knows. It requires the learner to provide an answer rather than to select an answer. Short answer items use questions which restrict the answer to a short paragraph, sentence, or single words. Short answer questions are appropriate for some outcomes rather than others. They are useful for recall of facts, analysis of data and solving problems. Examples of short answer items could include lists of items or equipment, brief descriptions of a procedure, sequence of an activity or reasons to explain an event.

• easy and relatively quick to write
• less influenced by guessing than multiple choice or true/false questions
• easy to score/mark with a high reliability of marking, especially with model answers or a marking guide
• provides more scope for the learner to show their knowledge than with a limited response question.

• short answer questions should give the learner clear guidance on the target length of their answers
• when a marking guide is developed, the test designer/assessor should recognise that there are likely to be correct answers in addition to those expected and that these should be added to the marking guide over time

• ask for specific information
• word the question precisely and concisely
• ensure that there is a single or defined number of correct answers
• avoid clues to the answer
• indicate the marks for the item / questions

This type of question requires the learner to look at a drawing or picture and write the correct name in a blank space. This could also be a practical test with actual items of equipment or components.