Benefits of Standardized Testing
Standardized testing involves administering tests and grading them in a standard or consistent manner. The use of standardized testing offers many benefits to both the learners and the organization. The following are some major benefits associated with standardized testing.
1. Same testing material
Standardized testing makes certain that all learners are being objectively measured on similar testing material. In addition, the scoring is also standardized and this means that test scores will also be similar regardless of who is grading them. The reason for this is basically to eliminate any bias stemming from the grader. However, exams using subjective grading usually yield grades that widely vary depending on the person grading them.
2. Standardized results
Another huge advantage of standardized testing is the fact that the results are also standardized. Even though some learners might score lower when given certain exams, these differences are going to be systematic when using standardized testing.
3. Low-cost
Standardized tests are usually short enough and objective for learners to do in only one day. They are also simple to administer and grade. Furthermore, the little time required for creating the standardized tests, makes them cost efficient.
4. Compatible with PDAs
Learning institutions can upload results gotten from standardized testing to PDAs. Education experts discovered that the use of current data on PDAs assisted student grades to improve by at least 15%. Without this particular benefit of providing standardized exam feedback, instructors may not have the direction for changing their teaching approaches and methods.
5. Effective testing method
Standardized testing helps to predict success accurately as compared to subjective assessments like interviews. Actually, experts say interviews do not provide as much information concerning a certain learner and therefore the use of standardized testing is highly advocated for.
Nevertheless, standardized testing cannot measure the student’s creativity, initiative, conceptual thinking and also imagination.
