The purpose of the Paper Test (written exam) is to assess each student’s achievement progress regarding their listening, reading, vocabulary, conversation, grammar, and writing proficiency.  The exam should typically consist of most or all of the following sections, with the number of questions also dependent on how much focus was given to each respective testing area during the semester:  Class Coordinators make all test.

All exam questions and content to be used should be agreed upon by the participating teachers as fair based on the curriculum and what has been taught in the classroom. Transcripts for listening sections should also be provided. The cooperating teacher should also check the test for errors of any kind. This should be done at least 1 week in advance of the review class.  If for some reason the cooperating teacher has not seen the test yet with 2 or 3 days to go before the exam, please tell the director.

The coordinating teacher should prepare not only a review lesson for all cooperating teachers, but also a review sheet to guide students in their exam preparation.  The exam dates should be posted in the homeroom and announced in all classes 1 or 2 weeks prior.

Avoid testing listening items by simply talking.  Use CDs in class and in your class on a regular basis.  Confirm that all exam CDs and tapes are accurate and can be clearly heard.  It is very important to make the listening scripts available to the cooperating teachers in order to verify that the listening tasks are appropriate.  For juniors, matching cloze and multiple choice are best so that they can focus on listening rather than production.

Some things to avoid when making listening test tasks are: (1) making students write full sentences in response to what they hear; and (2) having students hear long stretches of audio of extraneous information.

When making an exam, all listening section headings should include some reference info from where the audio text is taken (textbook, CD number, track number, time position [seconds] and / or page number). If the listening sections are based on teacher speaking parts, include the script with the test version that is stored each term.  All exam headers should have identification blanks for class, group, student name, and student number, as well as the current month and year.  For longer listening sections (descriptions, stories, …) it is a good idea to have a blank memo box where students can write notes.

Announce the testing dates to the students at least 1 week beforehand.  Ask the homeroom teacher to remind the students of this during their morning homeroom.

The test tasks and scoring given in the table on the next page should be considered only as guidelines and teachers should feel free to make their own tests as they see fit. Since conversation fluency should is the main focus of our International Program, at least one test task where the students write a conversation is virtually essential. At any rate, please keep in mind that the students should be given an extra 5 minutes or so for checking their work.

Always prepare test tapes and CD which are of a high, clear quality.  If you cannot, then you are better off having teachers doing speaking parts.

Administering the Paper Test

Students may only have a watch, a pencil, a pen, an eraser on their desks.

Use exam seating charts for whole class paper tests. This will help insure a better testing atmosphere.　Get this seating from the homeroom teacher, or see if one is already made and taped onto the teacher’s desk for that particular homeroom.  Ask the homeroom teacher to announce to their students that they should remain in their homeroom for that lesson, and sit in their exam seating. 

Do not take attendance because it wastes time and sets up opportunities for misbehavior.  Instead, use a seating chart or the tests turned in themselves as a means of taking attendance. 

Tell students that this is a test and that it has now begun and they must be quiet throughout the test.  Tell students if they have a question, they must raise their hand, and then wait for a teacher to come near to them when they may ask the teacher their question quietly. They may not speak or shout aloud. Warn the students they will get a zero if they speak aloud.  Warn a student 2 times for not speaking aloud during the test. by making a mark (such as an X) on their test.  On the third interruption, take the test away, mark it as a zero, and have the student escorted from the classroom.

On the blackboard, (for juniors), write a copy of the test header showing class, name, and student number.  Remind junior students to write their in English.  List the listening sections on the board (typically labeled as ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’) Tell students the listening section will be played twice.  Read the directions to them.  Write an example for each listening section just before you begin it.  For sections where there are distinct questions to be answered, tell the students first to read the questions for short time before you start playing the audio. Announce to students that you will be playing that listening section for the first time, and then also again for the second time.  Pause between sections where sentences or notes must be written down. Do not use audios with short questions unless it as dictation and the tape itself contains the proper pauses.   

It may be a good idea for some listening sections to be played only once.  If the answer for a section is stated 2 or 3 times, for a multiple-choice type of question especially, then there is no need to play the section twice.

Remind students to raise their hand if they have a question about the test.  Invigilators may restate the directions briefly (20 seconds or so) to students who request help. Do not help students with content or test strategies. 

During tests, if a student has appeared to finish early, then check to see if he or she has forgotten to answer any pages. If students sleep rather than do the test, wake them up by lightly tapping their desk and pointing at the test.  Let these students sleep, however, if they continue to wish to do so.

For exams, invigilators should tell students to write their name in English on their test paper.  During the test, invigilators should check the paper of each and every student to see that their name is on it. If it is not, then the invigilators should remind students a second time to write their name in English.  If after the test any student still does not have their name written in English, you may choose to deduct no more than 5 points from their test.   

Scoring

In general, score written sentence answers so as to give 1 mark for meaning and 1 mark for form.

All students who score less than 40 percent on a test shall have their tests scores raised so that their overall score is 40 percent.  It may well be that no adjustment is necessary because scores from either the speaking test or class participation will insure that the overall score is 40 percent.  This is done for administrative reasons.

Paper Tests may be revised during class by students but they may not keep them.  Instead each Class Coordinator should save these tests as a continuing record of students’ progress.  At the beginning of the following year, Class Coordinators should give these old tests to the teacher who will teach those students for the following year.   The purpose of this is that teachers can them choose to review these tests to get an idea of what was studied and how well certain students are learning.

Attendance

Keep careful track of students who did and did not take the test due to an absence.  Reschedule a “retake for these students after school, during lunch, during the revision [hand-back] classes, or during an independent study day [jishu]. One of the cooperating teachers can do the proctoring for these make-up tests.