Achievement tests are evaluations that seek to measure knowledge or skills gained after training, instruction, or other experiences (Gibson and Mitchell 2008; McMillan and Schumacher 2010). These types of tests are taken by adolescents throughout their educational careers, even though they sometimes may not even realize that they are taking them. Although a wide variety of achievement tests exists, they can be grouped into categories according to their primary purpose and the scope of comparison (Whiston 2009). For example, norm-referenced achievement tests compare an individual’s test score in a specific area to those of other test-takers. Criterion reference tests compare an individual’s scores to a preset of knowledge or abilities. Some tests can be a mixture of both, such as some diagnostic achievement tests that are given to individuals to determine academic progress or identify strengths and weaknesses.
Efforts to measure achievement have grown, and their increase has resulted in...
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References
Gibson, R., & Mitchell, M. (2008). Introduction to counseling and guidance. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
McMillan, J., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Whiston, S. (2009). Principles and applications of assessment in counseling. Belmont: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Achievement Tests. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_354
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