Generating scores for a test

Possibilities for scoring tests

After all the items in a test have been scored (and, in the case of manual scoring, sent back to TAO), a score for the whole test, and the corresponding results, can be generated.

Note: One possibility is to opt for no further processing (which is the default setting). In this case, the results table for that test will contain only the scores for the individual test items, and no test score. Use this option if you do not need aggregated test scores, or want to carry out further processing outside of TAO.

There are several options open to you when generating test results, some of which can be combined:

Simple tallying of item scores
Tallying of item scores, but giving more marks for certain items
Generating a pass/fail grade
Defining your own rules

The following lessons examine each of these in more detail.

Simple tallying of item scores

The simplest way of getting a test score is to add together all the marks of all the items (the questions) in the test. If you choose this method, the test score which appears in the results table for the test is the sum of all the marks the test-taker achieved in all the questions, along with the marks available. The ratio of correct answers to incorrect answers is also calculated. If, for example, the test-taker got 24 points out of a possible 40, this will appear in the results table as follows:

SCORE_TOTAL: 24

SCORE_TOTAL_MAX: 40

SCORE_RATIO: 0.6

Note: Details on how to configure this option are given in the chapter 'Summary and configuration of scoring methods' below.

Weighting items

The 'simple tally' method adds all the scores from the test questions, as we saw above. You may, though, want to make some of the test questions count for more in the final test score. Some items might be considered to be of greater importance, for example, or may have been more complex.

This is called 'weighting'.