Placemnet Testing

Placement testing is testing at the beginning of instruction. Teachers need answer two major questions before proceeding with the instruction:
• To what extent do the students possess the skills and abilities that are needed to begin instruction?
• To what extent have the students already achieved the intended learning outcomes of the planned instruction?

Information concerning the first question can be obtained from readiness pretests. The second question can be answered by a placement pretest covering the intended learning outcomes of the planned instruction. Readiness pretests are tests given at the beginning of a course, or unit of instruction, that cover those prerequisite skills considered necessary for success in the planned instruction.For example, a test of English grammar might be given at the beginning of a German course, or a test of computational skill might be given at the beginning of an algebra course.

Placement tests are test given to covering the intended learning outcomes of the planned instruction. This might very well be the same test that is given at the end of the instruction; preferably it should be another form of it. Placement pretests are inportant to determining whether the students have already mastered some of the material that teacher plan to include in an instruction. If they have, teacher might need to modify the plans, encourage some students to skip particular units, and place other students at more advance level of instruction.

How important placement testing?
Placement testing is not always necessary. Teacher who has worked with students from some time may know their past achievements well enough that a pretest at the beginning of an instructional unit is not needed. In other cases a course or unit of instruction may not have a clearly defined set of prerequisite skills. Similarly, some area of instruction may be so new to the students that it can be assumed that none of the students have achieved the intended outcomes of the planned instruction.

When the teacher is unfamiliar with the students’ skills and abilities, and when the intended outcomes of instruction can be clearly secified and organized in meaningful sequences, placement testing is probably most useful. Under these conditions the placement test provides an invaluable aid for placing each student at the most beneficial position in the instructional sequence.


Testing in the Instructional Process