The test task should. Basic requirements for test tasks

When choosing a candidate for a position, the employer risks getting what is called a pig in a poke. Therefore, at the negotiation stage, he checks the level of professionalism of the applicant in all possible ways. But is this always justified? What should you do if you are offered to complete a test task or work for a while as a test?

Often experienced specialists believe that a test task is not for them. And those who have little experience, on the contrary, take on such voluminous work that it is difficult to recognize such a task as a “test”. Misunderstanding arises for various reasons, including due to mistakes by employers: the test task sometimes does not correspond to the purposes it should serve.

What goals might there be?

1. Test your real knowledge and skills. A test task is something you do not in a team or under the guidance of a boss, so it is sometimes trusted more than a portfolio.
2. Introduce you to the work. Give both you and the employer the opportunity to understand whether you can handle it, whether you imagined such a job correctly, whether you are interested. The task may be asked to be completed directly in the office.
3. Check your train of thought, how exactly you see a current problem or a similar task. Often used for managerial and creative positions.

Any test task is also a test of motivation. But motivation should not disappear during the task. If you have not yet seen the employer and do not know anything about the company, and you are already being asked to solve several voluminous tasks, this should alert you. Test tasks are often small in volume and not too labor-intensive, unless it is a “star” company in which there is very high competition for each vacancy.

If you are being persuaded to do complex work that will take a lot of time, find out from the employer as many details as possible: in what form the result is required from you, whether it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the company when performing the task, whether it is possible to ask clarifying questions and who will evaluate the result. If the task is voluminous, you can demand from the employer a detailed analysis of your work - and often this is a big plus.

Test work helps not only the employer, but also the applicant to decide whether he is ready to perform such tasks every day. Be careful if:

• it takes you more than one day to complete the test task;
• you know little about the employing company;
• common sense dictates that the task does not look like a test, and this is the part of the work on which the company wants to save money.

What kind of test tasks have you encountered? How did you determine when it was really a test and when it was wasted work?

1. When creating tests to test residual knowledge in a relevant discipline or to test a student’s final knowledge based on the discipline program, it is determinedtest content area And testing goals.

Test plan (Appendix 1) for intermediate control of knowledge it must cover knowledge, abilities and skills in one or more didactic units, for final certification - for all didactic units of the discipline in accordance with the discipline program, for testing residual knowledge in all didactic units of the discipline in accordance with the State Standards for the profession /specialties.

3. It is necessary to include in the tests only the most important, basic knowledge that expresses the essence, content, laws and patterns of the phenomena under consideration. All controversial points of view that are acceptable in a scientific dispute should be excluded from test tasks.

4. Each educational element must have a certain average measure of difficulty, which must be taken into account in the process of monitoring knowledge.

1. When developing a plan of test tasks for a discipline, an approximate layout of the percentage content of sections is made and the required number of tasks (but not less than 3) is determined for each section of the discipline (for each didactic unit) based on its importance and the number of hours allocated for its study in the program .

The main terms of the test task must be clearly and clearly defined.

Test tasks must be pragmatically correct and designed to assess the level of students' educational achievements in a specific area of ​​knowledge.

Test tasks should be formulated in the form of condensed short judgments.

Test items that require the test taker to make detailed conclusions about the requirements of the test items should be avoided.

When constructing test situations, you can use various forms of their presentation, as well as graphic and multimedia components in order to rationally present the content of educational material.

The number of words in a test task should not exceed 10-12, unless this distorts the conceptual structure of the test situation. The main thing is a clear and explicit reflection of the content of a fragment of the subject area.

The average time for a test task should not exceed 1.5 minutes.

1. It is recommended to adhere to the following test parameters:

Compliance of the content of test tasks with the state educational standard for the academic discipline (basic part of test tasks - 70% - 85%), as well as the inclusion of additional test tasks (variable part of test tasks - 15% - 30%).

It is necessary to select tasks that comprehensively reflect the main topics of the academic discipline.

Test assignments for a specific academic discipline should most fully reflect its content and key concepts in order to have a high-quality objective assessment of students’ knowledge. The inclusion of minor content elements in the test can lead to unjustified conclusions about knowledge or ignorance of the academic discipline.

It is necessary to maintain proportions in the number of test tasks on the topics of the academic discipline.

It is necessary to check the compliance of the content of test tasks with the knowledge, skills and abilities assessed in students.

Each test task requires certainty, logic, the absence of incorrect formulations, and the identification of one subject of measurement (key concept, term, rule, definition, etc.).

1. Test specification includes:

The purpose of creating the test, justification for the choice of approach to its creation, description of possible areas of its application.

List of regulatory documents (basic programs, requirements for the level of training of graduates, etc.) used when planning the content of the test.

The number of tasks of various forms, indicating the number of answers to closed tasks, the total number of tasks in the test.

Coverage of the requirements of state educational standards for the discipline.

1. Recommendations for the wording of test items

The main elements of the test task are instructions, task (content part), answers to the task.

The instructions for the test tasks determine the list of actions when passing the test. It must be adequate to the form and content of the task (“indicate the correct answer(s)”, “establish a correspondence”, “determine the correct sequence”, “enter the correct answer”).

The terminology used should not go beyond the scope of basic textbooks and regulations.

All repeated words must be excluded from the answers and included in the content of the task.

All answer options must be correctly coordinated with the content of the task, uniform in content and structure, and equally attractive. Clear distinctions between responses are needed. The correct answer is clear and should not rely on hints.

Among the answers there should be no answers that follow from one another.

The answer options cannot include the wording “all of the above”, “all statements are true”, “the listed answers are not correct”, since such answers violate the logical design of the test task or contain a hint.

The number of test items with negation should be minimal. In this case, the particle"Not" appears in bold.

1. Types and types of test tasks. Their features, advantages and disadvantages

There are two types of tasks that combine six types

Scheme 1. Types and types of test tasks

Open-type tasks include two types - addition tasks and free presentation tasks. Their distinctive feature is that to complete them the student needs to write down one or more words (numbers, letters, phrases, sentences).

Closed-type tasks (alternative answers, multiple choice, restoration of correspondence and restoration of sequence) provide various options for answering the question posed: one or more correct answers are selected from a number of proposed ones, correct (or incorrect) elements of the list are selected, etc. These tasks require the presence of a number of pre-developed options for answering a given question.

Closed tasks

1. Assignments of alternative answers.

For each alternative answer problem, only two answer options are given. The subject must choose one of them - “yes - no”, “right - wrong”, etc.

Assignment form

... ...

Instructions for asking alternative answers: You need to choose one answer option that you think is correct.

Alternative answer questions are more suitable for identifying the level of mastery of complex definitions, knowledge of fairly complex graphs, diagrams, diagrams, etc. A feature of alternative answer questions is that the question must be formulated in the form of a statement, since it presupposes agreement or disagreement, which can be attributed to the statement.

2. Multiple choice tasks.

This is the main type of task used in achievement tests. Multiple choice problems involve variability in choices. The subject must choose one of the proposed options, of which most often only one is correct.

1. Any ambiguity or unclear wording must be eliminated in the text of the assignment;

2. The main part of the task is formulated very briefly, no more than one sentence of seven to eight words;

3. The task must have an extremely simple syntactic structure;

4. The main part of the task includes as many words as possible, leaving 2-3 key words for the answer for a given problem;

5. All answers to one task should be approximately the same length, or in some tasks the correct answer may be shorter than others;

6. All associations that contribute to choosing the correct answer by guessing should be excluded from the text;

7. The frequency of choosing the same place number for the correct answer in various tasks should be approximately the same;

8. All repeated words are excluded from the answers by entering them into the main text of the assignments;

10. Answers that follow from each other should be excluded from the number of incorrect ones;

11. Test items that contain value judgments or opinions of the test taker on any issue should be excluded;

12. All answer options should be equally likely to be attractive to subjects;

13. None of the answer options should be partially correct, turning into correct under certain additional conditions;

14. The main part of the task is formulated in the form of a statement, which turns into a true or false statement after substituting the answers;

15. The answer to one task should not serve as a key to the correct answers to other test tasks, i.e. You should not use distractors from one task as answers to other test tasks;

16. If a task contains, among others, alternative answers, you should not give an alternative answer immediately after the correct one, since the answerer’s attention usually focuses only on these two answers;

17. All answers must be parallel in design and grammatically consistent with the main part of the test task.

Form for submitting multiple choice tasks:

Question (statement):

A. Answer option 1

B. Answer option 2

C. Answer option 3

Instructions for multiple choice items: Select the letter(s) that corresponds to the correct answer(s).

3. Tasks to restore compliance.

Tasks of this type include tasks to restore correspondence between elements of two lists and the order of a series. It consists of two groups of elements and a clear formulation of the criterion for choosing a correspondence between them. The correspondence is established according to the principle 1:1 (one element of the first group corresponds to only one element of the second group) or 1:M (one element of the first group corresponds to M elements of the second group). Within each group, the elements must be homogeneous. The number of elements in the second group must exceed the number of elements in the first group, but not more than 1.5 times. The maximum allowed number of elements in the second group must not exceed 10. The number of elements in the first group must be at least two.

Form for submitting tasks to restore compliance:

Instructions: Match what is written in columns 1 and 2.

Question:

Answer options:

Answer: A. 3. B. 2. C. 5. D. 1. E. 4.

The main advantages of tasks of this type are: the ability to quickly assess knowledge, skills and abilities in a specific field of knowledge, and the cost-effectiveness of placing tasks in the test.

4. Sequence restoration tasks

Sequence restoration tasks can be considered as a variant of the correspondence restoration task, when one of the series is time, distance, or another continuum construct, which is implied in the form of a series.

Sequence reconstruction tasks are a very high-quality form of test tasks that have significant advantages: brevity, ease of verification.

Exercise.

Instructions: Place in the correct order.

Question.

Answer options.

1. A.

2.B.

3. S. ……. Answer: 1. A. 2. D. 3. B. 4. E. 5. C. 6. F.

Advantages of closed assignments

Items can be reliable because there are no subjective rating factors that reduce reliability.

Assessment of assignments is completely objective: there can be no differences between the assessments of different assessors.

The ability of subjects to formulate answers well is not taken into account.

Tasks of this type are easy to process and testing is carried out quickly.

A simple filling algorithm reduces the number of accidental errors and typos.

These tasks allow you to cover large areas of knowledge, which is especially important for achievement tests.

Machine processing of responses is possible.

Low probability of guessing the correct answers.

It is possible to obtain an accurate assessment of the content of the test, which is especially important for determining the suitability of the test for the purposes of the study

Open type tasks

Requires a conclusion formulated by the test taker himself regarding the requirements of the task. Appears to be an incomplete statement that is missing one or more key elements. The key elements can be: a number, a word or a phrase. When formulating a task, you must put a dash or ellipsis in place of the key element. The missing element (correct conclusion) in an open form task is entered by the test taker in the place of the dash and/or in a special field clearly visible to the test taker.

These include two types of tasks:

1) additions (tasks with limited answers). In these tasks, subjects also provide answers to questions independently, but their capabilities are limited.

Restrictions ensure the objectivity of assessing the result of the task, and the wording of the answer should allow for an unambiguous assessment.

Instructions for addition tasks: instead of an ellipsis, enter only one word (symbol, sign, etc.).

An example of specifying an add-on.

Instructions: Instead of an ellipsis, enter only one word.

Question: A company providing network services is...

Answer: provider.

2) Free presentation or free construction. They require free responses from subjects regarding the essence of the task. There are no restrictions on answers. However, the wording of tasks should ensure that there is only one correct answer.

Instructions for free presentation tasks: complete the sentence (phrase), enter the correct answer (phrase, phrase, sentence or several sentences) instead of the ellipsis.

An example of a free presentation assignment.

Instructions: Complete the sentence.

Question: A special program that implements the rules for transferring information between computers is... ...

Answer: network protocol.

The difficulty in using this type of task lies in the difficulty of formalizing answers; the need to prepare assessment schemes makes standardization difficult; the procedure is cumbersome and time-consuming.

The main difficulty in composing open-type tasks is meeting the basic requirement for test tasks (having a clear correct answer).

The positive aspects of well-written addition and free presentation tasks are:

1) inability to guess the answer;

2) brevity and clarity of answers;

3) the need to reproduce the answer from memory;

4) no need to look for several answer options;

5) simplicity of the question formulation;

6) ease of verification.

1. Grading Criteria

A “satisfactory” grade is given if the student/student answered from 55 to 70% of the questions. The grade “good” is given if the student/student received from 71 to 85%. An “excellent” grade is given if the student/student received 86% or more.

Basic types of chemical reactions

3.2, 3.3

Periodic table of D.I. Menedeleev and properties of chemical elements

Chemical bonding and structure of matter

Chemical kinetics and catalysis. Speed ​​of reactions. Catalysis. (Task)

2. 2.3

Chemical balance. Equilibrium constant. Equilibrium shift.

2.1,

Dispersed systems. General properties of solutions. Energy of dissolution.

A10

Composition of solutions. Mass fraction. Molar concentration.

1.1,

A11

Electrolyte solutions. Dissociation of acids, bases, salts.

A12

Acid-base reactions. Hydrolysis of salts.

Total

*Note. Types of test tasks:

1 - tasks with a choice of one or more correct answers;

2 - tasks of an open form, i.e. without indicating answers (additions and free presentation)

3 - tasks to establish compliance

4 - tasks to establish the correct sequence

5 – tasks of alternative answers

Teaching methods are divided into teaching methods, teaching methods and control methods.

Pedagogical control performs a number of functions in the pedagogical process: evaluative, stimulating, developmental, educational, diagnostic, educational, etc.

The control process is one of the most labor-intensive and responsible operations in teaching, associated with acute psychological situations for both students and teachers.

To diagnose the success of learning, special methods are being developed, which different authors call educational achievement tests, success tests, didactic tests, and even teacher tests.

Testing has long become a common event in the lives of students, teachers and parents. All participants in the educational process have to deal with tests. In recent years, a number of works on testology have been published, but, in my opinion, there is a shortage of practical guides that can help a teacher (mathematics in particular) introduce a student to the “art of testing”, namely, practically prepare for testing

in the format of the Unified State Exam.

Tests are fairly short, standardized or non-standardized tests, tests that allow one to assess the effectiveness of cognitive activity in relatively short periods of time, i.e. assess the extent and quality of each student’s achievement of learning goals (learning goals).

Along with achievement tests designed to assess knowledge acquisition in specific disciplines or their cycles, more broadly oriented tests are also being developed. These are, for example, tests to assess individual skills. Even more broadly oriented are tests for studying skills that can be useful in mastering a number of disciplines, for example, skills in working with a textbook, mathematical tables, encyclopedias and dictionaries.

There are also tests aimed at assessing the impact of training on the formation of logical thinking, the ability to reason, draw conclusions based on the analysis of a certain range of data, etc. These tests are most similar in content to intelligence tests.

Since achievement tests are designed to assess the effectiveness of teaching in specific subjects, the teacher must become an obligatory participant in the formulation of individual tasks.

According to the form of testing, tests can be individual and group, oral and written, blank, computer, verbal and non-verbal. Moreover, each test has several components: a manual for working with the test, a test book with tasks or a form with tasks, equipment (calculator, computer), an answer sheet (for blank methods), templates for data processing.

Any test must undergo imperial testing and have certain and stable values ​​of parameters characterizing its quality. In addition to the established estimates of the difficulty parameter and the differentiating ability parameter, studies of the system-forming properties of the task should be carried out using the methods of correlation factor task. In other words, any test must be standardized. Therefore, when developing and composing personal tests, it is more correct and correct for the teacher to call them “test tasks”.

A test task is one of the diagnostic elements.

Requirements for the TEACHER when preparing test tasks

When compiling test items, you should follow a number of rules necessary to create a reliable, balanced tool for assessing the success of mastering certain academic disciplines or their sections:

• Each task must have its own serial number, established according to an objective assessment of the difficulty of the task and the chosen testing strategy.
• it is necessary to analyze the content of the tasks from the perspective of equal representation of different educational topics, concepts, actions, etc. in the test.
• the test should not be loaded with secondary terms, unimportant details with an emphasis on rote memory, which can be involved if the test includes exact wording from the textbook or fragments from it.
• Test items must be formulated clearly, concisely and unambiguously so that all students understand the meaning of what is being asked of them. It is important to ensure that no test item can serve as a hint for the answer to another.
• Answer options for each task must be selected in such a way that the possibility of simple guessing or discarding a obviously inappropriate answer is excluded.
• It is important to choose the most appropriate form of answers to tasks. Considering that the question asked should be formulated briefly, it is also advisable to formulate the answers briefly and unambiguously. For example, an alternative form of answers is convenient when the student must underline one of the listed solutions “yes-no”, “true-false”.
• tasks for tests should be informative, work out one or more concepts of a formula, definition, etc. At the same time, test tasks cannot be too cumbersome or too simple. These are not tasks for mental calculation.
• If possible, there should be at least five possible answers to the problem. It is advisable to use the most common errors as incorrect answers.
• It should take no more than 1-2 minutes to complete one test task.

Tests should only test knowledge, not intelligence.!

FORMS OF TEST TASKS

There are various forms of test tasks:

1. CLOSED FORM TASKS [ZZF]

Find the domain of the function.

a)(6; ) ; b) (;6 ) ; at 2; ) ; g)(-6;6) ; d) ( ;); e) no answer. (A)

2. OPEN FORM TASKS [ZOF]

How many diagonals does an octagonal truncated pyramid have?

Answer:________

3. COMPLIANCE TASKS [ZnS]

Match.

Answers:1______, 2_____, 3_____.

4. RANKING TASKS [ZnR]

For example: (fragment of a test assignment on algebra and the beginnings of analysis grade 11)

U show the sequence of steps to construct a graph of a function (using the derivative).

1. Find the derivative;

2. Find the intervals of increasing and decreasing;

3.Find the domain of definition;

4. Create a table based on the research results;

5.Find stationary points;

6.Build a graph;

7.Find extremum points;

8. Find the values ​​of the function at the extremum points.

Answer:__________________

DEGREE OF COMPLEXITY OF TEST TASKS

Test tasks can be of varying degrees of difficulty. The pedagogical literature describes five levels of knowledge acquisition.

Accordingly, we can distinguish five groups of test tasks according to difficulty level:

Levels I and II - initial; they correspond to the first (“factual”) level of knowledge, which consists in the accumulation of a “fund of knowledge” consisting mainly of facts. When solving, students limit themselves to citing single facts and give memorized characteristics of terms and phenomena.

For example: (fragment of a test assignment on algebra and basic analysis, grade 10)

Which of these functions is representative?

A)y = sin B)y = C)y = D)y =

Level III -operating; it consists in the ability to carry out the simplest logical operations according to a ready-made model and is characterized by the formation of partial system associations and the presence of a connection between knowledge acquired within one chapter or one section.

For example: (fragment of a test assignment on algebra and basic analysis, grade 10)

Solve the equation .

A)5 B)2 C)25 D) another answer

IV level - analytical-synthetic; Having achieved it, students demonstrate the ability to generalize, differentiate stable knowledge, connect previously studied with new knowledge, highlight the main ideas, the main provisions of the topic, section, reveal various connections and draw analogies.

For example: (fragment of a test assignment on algebra and basic analysis, grade 10)

Find the sum of the roots of the equation.

A) -4.5 B) 5 C) 4.5 D) another answer

Level V-creative; it requires the transfer of knowledge to new situations, the creation of non-standard algorithms for cognitive and practical actions.

For example: (fragment of a test assignment on algebra and the beginnings of analysis grade 11)

Which of the graphs in the figure could be the graph of the equation

Answer:__________________

The choice of form and degree of complexity of test tasks depends on the time of conducting

PRINCIPLES FOR WRITING ANSWERS.

There are also certain principles for composing answers to test tasks.

alternativeness(answers are opposed to each other).

For example: (fragment of a test task in algebra and basic analysis; 10 grades)

Solve the equation

A) ; b) ; c) no solutions;

G) ; d) ;

cumulation(summing up different answers);

For example: (fragment of a test assignment in algebra and elementary analysis grade 11)

How to find the largest and smallest value of a function on a segment?

A) find the values ​​of the function at the extremum points;

B) find the values ​​of the function at the extremum points and at the ends of the segment;

C) find the values ​​of the function at the extremum points and at the ends of the segment, select the largest and smallest from them.

combination(reverse word order used in questions)

For example: (fragment of a test assignment in geometry 10th grade)

The lateral surface area of ​​a regular pyramid...

A) the product of the half-sum of the perimeters of the bases and the apothem is...

B) the product of the perimeter of the base and the apothem is...

C) the product of the sum of the perimeters of the bases and the apothem is...

D) the sum of the perimeter of the base and apothem is...

classification

For example: (fragment of a test assignment in geometry grade 11)

Prism, pyramid, cone...

A) geometric shapes;

B) geometric bodies.

If more than 5% of students choose the wrong answer, then it should be replaced!

METHODOLOGY FOR COMPLETING VARIOUS TEST TASKS.

The test may include test items of various types. Let's consider the methodological features of their compilation:

CLOSED FORM TASKS [ZZF] (with a choice of answers) - in them, students choose the correct answer from a given set of answers to the test task.

• any ambiguity or unclear wording must be eliminated in the text of the assignment otherwise delete the test task;
• The main part of the task is formulated extremely briefly. No more than 1 sentence;
• the task must have an extremely simple syntactic structure;
• the main part of the task should include as many statement words as possible, leaving no more than 2-3 key words for the answer ( the most important);
• It is desirable that all answers to one task be approximately the same length;
• from the text of the task it is necessary to exclude all verbal associations that contribute to the choice of the correct answer by guessing;
• the frequency of choosing the same place number for the correct answer in any test task should be approximately the same ( or the seat number is selected at random);
• the main part of the task should be freed from all secondary material for a given problem;
• All repeated words must be excluded from the answers by entering them into the main text of the assignment;
• It is not recommended to use the words “in answers” all”, “none”, “never”, “always” and so on.;
• those answers that follow from one another should be excluded from the number of answers;
• those tasks that ascertain the student’s opinions on any issue should be excluded from the test;
• tasks are printed in capital letters or highlighted in a bright (bold), attractive color (font), and the text of the answers is in capital letters in a neutral color;

When filling out the FFA, it must be placed at the beginning of the test task. instructions.

For example:

Circle the number of the correct answer.

Choose one correct answer from the four given and circle it.

OPEN FORM TASKS [ZOF] (tasks with gaps) - they require students to independently formulate an answer.

• formulate a question containing no more than 7-8 words and write down an answer to it, representing some statement of the same length of 7-8 words.
• from the resulting statement, exclude keywords or a word (no more than 2) and put a dash in their place.
• the task must be written in such a way that it requires a clear and unambiguous answer and does not allow for double interpretation;
• A dash is placed in place of a key term, the knowledge of which is essential for the controlled material ( if possible at the end of the statement);
• It is recommended that all dashes in tasks for one test be the same length;
• during the development process, it is recommended to simplify syntactic structures, as well as eliminate repetitions and double negatives;

When registering the ZOF, it must be placed at the beginning of the test task instructions.

For example:

Fill in the blanks to obtain the correct statement or the correct wording of the definition.

Solve the problem and write down the answer (Answer______).

CONFORMITY TASKS [ZnS] (associative connections) - allow you to assess knowledge of facts, terminology, concepts in their interrelation. A correspondence is established between the elements of two sets.

• on the left is the original set, and on the right is the set of elements to be selected;
• the number of elements of the right set must exceed the number of the left set;
• The main difficulty in compiling is the competent selection of the right set.
• Assessment of assignments is at the discretion of the teacher.

When registering the ZiS, it must be placed at the beginning of the test task instructions.

For example:

Match the columns on the left and right sides.

RANKING TASKS [ZnR (to establish the correct sequence) - the student must indicate the order of actions or processes listed in the task.

• as a condition, tasks are selected that have a clear algorithm of action or a strict sequence;
• the formulation of statements must be clear and extremely concise;

When registering, the ZiR must be placed at the beginning of the test task instructions.

For example:

Specify the sequence of actions.

List of sources used

1.Azevich A.I. final certification papers in algebra in grade IX // Mathematics at school. No. 2, 1999. pp. 9-10.

2.Miroshnikova M.M., Ozhegov V.B., Cherkas L.S. Testing knowledge in mathematics using a computer. M. 1990. S. 5-9.

3. Smirnov S.D. Pedagogy and psychology of higher education: From activity to personality: Proc. allowance. M. 1995. P. 271

4. Shchapoval V.V., Mitrofanov K.G., Saplina E.V. Techniques and rules for successfully passing exams. AST.Astrel. M. 2004.

The main classification of test tasks is tasks:

closed type (when the student has to choose from ready-made answer options);

open type (when the student himself finds the answer and writes it into the form).

Closed tasks, in turn, are divided into:

one answer option(multiple selection; radio button). The answer is counted if the student chooses it correctly. Options:

• simple choice - one answer out of 4-5;

  simple choice from a variety - one answer out of 6-15;

  choosing the most accurate answer from those presented.

tests in which you can choose several answer options- check the boxes, but either one or several answer options can be correct (alternative choice, checkbox). The answer for the test can be counted only if all answers are given correctly (there are no extra or missing ones) or a point is awarded for each correct answer and a point is deducted for each incorrect answer. Options:

• difficult choice - two or more correct answers out of 4-5;

  difficult choice from a variety of two or more correct answers out of 6-15.

match(related concepts are given on the left and right, for example, words in a sentence, generic and specific concepts, etc.). The student needs to draw matching lines, drag the blocks on the computer and install them with each other, etc. This also includes tasks for sorting and classification. Matching options between:

• concepts and definitions;

  dates and events;

  a list of concepts and their characteristics;

identify sequences(the student is offered a number of concepts, dates, words that he has to establish in the correct sequence). Options:

• establishing the chronological sequence of events;

  establishing a logical sequence;

  arrangement of numbers in ascending / descending order;

alternative answer (the student is asked to establish Yes-No or True-False for each statement given).

Open type tasks:

enter a small phrase, word or symbols - like addition to the context. For example, insert a missing letter, punctuation marks, a missing word, etc.;

free presentation - the student is given space to freely present the answer to the question. The space may be limited by the number of characters, for example, no more than 100 or 500 characters, 10 words, etc.

When and what task options to use?

Table M.B. Chelyshkova.

How to group test tasks

There are three approaches to grouping test items:

all tasks are displayed randomly - it is good to use testing programs or online testing services;

tasks are displayed in order of complexity - first simple, then complex. This will allow students to quickly move forward, rather than “sitting” with a difficult task at the beginning of testing, spending all the time allotted for the test. Unified State Examination tasks are given in order of difficulty;

assignments are grouped by type or topic - this way, the student can adapt to the type of assignment, rather than adjusting to each type of assignment, wasting time.

Rules for writing tests

The test task must be formulated clearly, understandably and must be interpreted unambiguously. If the question is formulated in such a way that not all students can understand it clearly, the wording needs to be changed. Example: A company providing network services is... The student will ask the question: what are “network services?” Internet access services? A network marketing firm like Avon or something else?

The test task should be formulated briefly, preferably without the use of complex sentences, unnecessary participial and participial phrases, and introductory words. It is better to break the task into several small sentences. If a task contains a lot of “which”, “where”, “than”, and a lot of commas, it will be difficult to understand, and therefore difficult to solve. Don't be afraid to break sentences into parts.

The task should be formulated without repetitions, double negations (not - not), and it is better to avoid negation altogether. Example: Paint is not a spreadsheet program. Answer options: Yes-No. It will be difficult for a student to answer this question, because... both the task and the answer contain negation.

You should not write words like “formulate”, “indicate”, “report” in the question if this is already implied by the question itself. For example: Write what was the name of the discoverer of America? The word “write” is redundant.

Check both the wording of the tasks and the wording of the answers so that they do not contain hints for the student. Make sure that one task does not contain a hint for the answer to another task.

The tasks should not contain clearly inappropriate answers, upon seeing which the student will immediately calculate the correct answer. All answers should be approximately the same in content and volume.

Repeated phrases in each answer option must be included in the question text.

It is not allowed to use value judgments in the question or refer to the subjective opinion of the student. For example, the use of the words “important”, “main” is not allowed.

In the task, it is better to make the main word (key concept) the beginning of the sentence. It is better not to start the formulation of the task with prepositions or conjunctions. Example: Which group of countries accounts for the smallest share of world GDP and merchandise exports. Correct: The smallest share of world GDP comes from...

The test task must have a sufficient number of answer options:

• closed types of questions - 4-6 answer options;

  establish correspondence - 4-5 answer options;

  arrange the sequence - 4-8 answer options;

It is advisable to accompany the tasks and answer options with illustrations, diagrams, tables, etc.

The test should contain quite a lot of tasks, as well as tasks of different difficulty levels, so that the test results are as objective and reliable as possible. This will also help prevent student fatigue.

In the test, it is advisable to alternate different types of tasks, and also to avoid a large number of simple tasks (Yes-No, etc.) to increase the objectivity of the test.

It is highly undesirable to include tasks and trap questions in the test, provocative questions - this is not professional and reduces students’ confidence in the test, the teacher and testing in general.

Avoid questions that can be answered on the basis of erudition or logical thinking, since the purpose of the test is not to test erudition and ability to think, but to test the special knowledge of a particular student, knowledge of the educational material.

Exclude questions on knowledge of texts (unless specifically required), background information, small details, etc.

Vc.ru was told that the tests that must be passed to get into the coveted company can be very sophisticated. Some people offer to go through seven stages of interviews, some offer a security check, some candidates are inspected by a psychologist with blots and a very penetrating look. In the gaming industry, things are a little better, but there are some exceptions. In most cases, the scheme is simple: interview, test task, interview - changing the places of the terms does not change the sum. But one of them often raises doubts among both those who give it and those who perform it.

“They will see me and immediately understand everything”

Most candidates can be roughly divided into two types: those who primarily ask about the salary, and those who ask about the project they will be working on. But almost no one wants to do a test task for anyone. Therefore, after the exciting first question, the second always follows: “Is it possible to somehow do without a test task?”

The test task is a tool, not an end in itself. Of course, there may be situations when it is not needed. For example, if the employer has no doubts about the candidate's professional skills, which is possible if the candidate has previously publicly demonstrated these skills or has very strong references. This also includes famous and respected people, for whom a test task would be something of an insult. In other cases, there is no way without a test task. Its implementation does not guarantee that the candidate will be suitable for the position, but at least weeds out those who are not able to cope with even simple tasks.

Often, a detailed interview and a good resume will replace a test task, especially if it is important to assess how a person thinks. In this case, the candidate will have to spend 10-15 hours communicating with the HR department and the lead and eight hours interviewing the team.

We do not suggest that game designers complete a test task - there are a couple of questions, the answers to which show the absence of stereotyped thinking and general potential. First of all, what is important to us is a burning gaze, an analytical mindset, structured and critical thinking, and the depth of fundamental knowledge is secondary.

"Only after the third date"

Many candidates are embarrassed if they are asked to complete a test task before the first meeting: they have not yet met the company, do not know what they have to offer and are afraid that it will be a waste of time. On the other hand, when you have already met, talked and liked each other so much, additional checks are simply offensive. One way or another, you will still be offered a test task. Another question is when should this be done?

At the stage that precedes the interview. Before completing the test task, only money-hungry external recruiters and HR specialists from offices with a high level of bureaucracy conduct interviews. The normal chain looks like this: familiarization with the applicant’s resume, checking previous works, a test task and a personal interview with the future manager.

If the candidate is satisfied with everything after reading his resume and personal conversation, it’s time to check his practical skills. In some cases, even if you still have questions after the interview, a test task will help confirm or refute concerns about his knowledge and skills.

Evgenia Nikitina Director of HR at Pixonic studio

It is also important to warn applicants in the job description about the need to complete a test task. After this, it is no longer so important at what stage it will be. Of greater importance is the timeliness of providing the candidate with complete information about the prospects and the content of the work that is offered to him, as well as specifics on the criteria for assessing results. After all, the negative is caused precisely by the awareness of the inevitability of wasting personal time and the lack of understanding of the assessment of the work done. In the opposite situation, only sporting interest is born.

"Give me five minutes and I'll do everything tomorrow"

For companies, a lengthy task is the easiest way to weed out insufficiently motivated candidates. But in addition to the ten-page test, you have a main job and a limited number of hours in the day, a couple of which you would like to spend on sleep and personal matters. How long should a test task take to complete so that the company does not miss out on suitable candidates?

Pavel MikhailovChief Game Designer at Crytek

It must be taken into account that the candidate can continue to work on his current project or undergo interviews in other companies (where he was also given test tasks). Expecting that an employee who has not yet been hired will be able to spend the next 8-16 hours of his life only on your task is somewhat reckless. If two or three days are allocated to complete a technical task, the task will be performed poorly or not completed at all. The optimal time is a week. In a week you can find time to complete a task, or to prepare and search for the necessary information, even with a very busy schedule. After all, this option leaves the candidate with a whole weekend to spare.

Sergey Maslennikov game designer Zeptolab

We don't have any restrictions on this, but we will likely ask the candidate how long the task took. We take their word for it, since we do not track the fact of downloading a test task from the site, and the number of options to circumvent this limitation tends to infinity. The optimal completion time varies greatly from person to person, but the average is five to seven hours of work time.

Yaroslav Kravtsovproducer of the game Smash Bash in the indie team

No more than three days, that’s for sure. If a candidate spends a week working on a test task and is rejected, then the company will have one more enemy. In addition, the ability to meet deadlines is one of the key skills of a professional employee, so it is logical to test this skill in advance. But if you don’t limit your time too much, otherwise the candidate won’t have time to show the full scope of his skills. Of course, it is worth warning him in advance about such restrictions so that personal circumstances do not interfere with the test.

"I'm not free labor"

The first point of a standard task for game designers is: “Download our game. Write down what you like, what problems you see, and what needs to be fixed.” It is this that periodically becomes a stumbling block. In 99 cases out of 100, you will not be given money for completing a test task. But few people want to do for free what they usually pay for. How professional and appropriate is it to ask for your project to be analyzed?

If our goal in finding candidates and conducting interviews was to collect “free ideas,” I think that would be an extremely expensive and ineffective way to go. If a person does not want to voice any thoughts or suggestions, that is entirely his right. If the candidate has not voiced any ideas that are new to us, this does not affect the decisions in any way. Why shouldn't we be afraid to analyze our projects? Because a good analysis of our projects is one of the good reasons to hire a candidate on staff. Analysis of already launched, proven projects, for which we have a lot of analytics and opinions, allows us to predict with a high degree of accuracy how viable the candidate’s ideas and proposals are. It’s like a simple checklist, where the candidate either confirms the existing data or supplements it (which will undoubtedly be a significant plus).

Sergey Galenkin, head of publishing at Epic Games in Eastern Europe

If the candidate does not analyze the project, how will he understand whether he is ready to work on it for the next few years from morning to evening? If there are significant problems in the game that this candidate can fix in a week, the company will tear him away.

In our case, “our project” is usually under a strict NDA, and we cannot give it to candidates. Some people use Ubisoft games as examples, and doing your homework on the company's games is a plus. But we do not have any special requirements in this regard. First of all, it is important for us that the answers to the test questions are of high quality; a bad test with examples from Ubisoft games is still a bad test.

Pavel Mikhailov, chief game designer at Crytek

Seeing and understanding what the problem is is only part of the story; finding and creating optimal solutions requires other skills and good knowledge of the project architecture. And implementing the solution into the project is the third task. I would suggest that a person who does not understand this does not have the necessary experience for the job. Here we can draw a parallel with the existing opinion in game development that the price of even a very good idea is one cent. The value of a person who can offer it and realize it independently is incomparably higher.

“And the Swede, and the reaper, and the trumpet player”

There are several types of tasks with an emphasis on certain aspects of the work of a game designer. In large companies there is a division into “game designer-mathematician” and “game designer-scripter”. But game design is still a complex task, where you need to come up with functions, write technical specifications for programmers, and understand artists. What skills should be tested in the test task?

Andrey Dotsenko game designer at Ubisoft

English is one of the main requirements to work at Ubisoft. In our case, the designer will have to communicate a lot in English with colleagues from other offices. Therefore, the overall level of English proficiency in the test is very important (we also test speaking skills during the interview). A strong candidate with poor knowledge of English, unfortunately, is not suitable. Our test consists of ten questions (at the moment, this format seems optimal to us). The questions are quite general, there are no 100% correct answers to them, the main goal of the test is to test how a designer thinks and how he approaches solving various problems. Conventionally, each test question can be scored 0/0.5/1 point. From experience over the past two years: the “passing score” for an invitation to an interview starts somewhere from 6.5-7 and above. The first area that the test tests is general design knowledge and skills: knowledge of gaming culture, the ability to understand and analyze how other games work, knowledge of design theory and expertise in various areas (in the Kiev office, traditionally, there is a big focus on 3C/UI /UX). The second is technical and organizational skills: planning, ability to analyze information, understanding the technical limitations of the platform. And the third area is communication and presentation skills: the level of language proficiency, the ability to formulate thoughts, the structure and appearance of the test are also very important.

Sergey Maslennikov game designer at Zeptolab

Initially, we look at the logic of thinking, then at the originality and freshness of ideas. The ability to take input and clearly convey ideas as something logical, reasoned, and whole speaks positively about the candidate’s skills. We sometimes encourage candidates to introduce a third player to a game of Pong. How will the shape of the field change? Depending on what the candidate draws, we discuss potential bottlenecks in the gameplay and introduce additional conditions (for example, a fourth player who controls the ball). This case allows you to evaluate the ability to put yourself in the player’s place and “emulate” gameplay in your head. We often ask you to name your favorite mobile game and tell us what you don’t like about it and how to change it for the better. What a candidate offers can tell a lot about the focus of his professional interests and depth of understanding of mechanics.

Yaroslav Kravtsov is a producer of the game Smash Bash in an indie team

You need to check the skills that will be required in the job. To do this, the test task must be based on the tasks that the candidate will have to solve during successful employment. Otherwise, there is a risk that he will show mastery in analyzing the high-end gameplay of World of Warcraft, but at the same time it will turn out that he is incapable of writing design documentation.

Leonid Sirotin independent developer and DTF partner

The skill of writing, the skill of clearly expressing your thoughts, the skill of systematizing incoming and outgoing information, the skill of concentrating and the skill of a stone ass. This list is a basic and almost exhaustive list of skills required by a game designer. It should also be borne in mind that there is no such profession as a game designer. There are game designers-balancers, game designers-creatives, game designers-managers. For each of these categories of game designers, as part of a test task, you can put forward certain additional requirements, for example, you can ask a balancer to calculate the balance, a creative person to suggest functions, a manager to shout at the monitor, or draw up a development plan with budgeting. But usually, in the vast majority of companies, the assessment of technical specifications comes down to assessing the set of skills set out at the very beginning of this paragraph.

conclusions

Firstly, you don’t have to respond to everything, waste your own and other people’s time, and end up getting rejected “due to a weak test task.” This will close the path to the company for at least a year and a half, because few employers believe that a candidate can learn something in a year. Decide where exactly you really want to work and put in maximum effort and time to get there. Secondly, let's say you've already decided on the projects you want to work on for the next few years from dusk to dawn and vice versa. In this case, you will have to go through all the tests that the company will offer: communicate with psychologists, take a polygraph test, do a huge test task. Thirdly and most importantly, do not work for companies for which you are too lazy to do test assignments. The gaming industry is, after all, for those who love their work.