Assessment of Achievement

Assessment of Achievement

Achievement tests assess whatever the individual has acquired after some learning or training has taken place.In case of students,it assesses how much s/he has learned. It measures knowledge and skills attained by the students in a particular subjects in particular subject consequent to the classroom teaching.Achievement tests can be formative ,i.e.assessment done during the learning/or knowledge acquisition phase ; or summative ,i.e., assessment done at the end of learning.Achievement tests can also be prognostic or diagnostic.Prognostic achievement tests are used to predict how well an individual is expected to profit from training .On the other hand,diagnostic achievement tests provide information on the performance or achievement of the students in different areas and indicates their strong and weak areas. There are also standardized achievement tests as well as teacher made classroom/informal achievement tests.

Knowledge of achievement scores will help you to find out your strength area and weak areas.For example,if you have secured 92% in Maths and 78% in English, then you know that mathematics is your strong area.The achievement  test scores also indicate the relative standing of a student in a group.This helps in identifying one's position in a group and accordingly try to improve oneself.Assessment of achievement helps provide  educational guidance and counselling to the students.Teachers make use of the data for the purpose of classifying ,grouping,promoting,diagnosing or evaluating students. Counsellors/teachers can make use of achievement scores to promote the student's self understanding and diagnose the problems faced by the students