A test template: a balanced paper in fifteen minutes

For teachers in Gulf schools, from Grade 1 to Grade 12.

The paper written the night before looks fair, and then you mark it and find every question is the same type, that the marks piled up in the first two pages, and that it does not measure the skill you taught this month. A balanced paper is not longer, it is sharper: a short table of specifications before you write, question types that fit each objective, and an answer key written before you print. This guide walks through it, and comes with a printable test template.

What makes a paper balanced?

• It covers the skills taught in the period, not the ones you like or the ones that are easiest to write questions for.
• Each skill is weighted against the teaching time it took, not against where it sits in the textbook.
• More than one question type: two or three, each doing a job the others cannot.
• A visible rise: two or three questions to open with and settle the room, then application, then one analysis or inference question for the student who is ready.
• Realistic timing: work out the time for each section as you write the question, not after you have copied it in.

A table of specifications in fifteen minutes

"Table of specifications" is a grand name for a small thing: a page written before the test that says what it will measure and what each part is worth. It takes a quarter of an hour:

1. List the skills taught in the period. From your plan, not from memory: four to six skills in a teaching period is usual.
2. Give each skill a share of the total marks. A skill you taught for a full week is not worth the same in the test as one you taught in a single lesson.
3. Decide the number of questions and their marks. One skill may get two two-mark questions or one four-mark question; what matters is that the weighting shows in the table.
4. Pick the question type that fits each skill. A procedure is measured by a question that is solved, analysis by an open question, a definition by a short one.
5. Check the total. Make it equal the mark total printed at the top before you print. Arithmetic that does not add up is the commonest fault in a test paper, and the students spot it first.

A worked table of specifications for a 20-mark test

Copy the table onto the paper you hand in if your school asks for a table of specifications with it; our template carries the field on its first page.

Which question type for which skill

• Multiple choice: for quick coverage of terms, definitions and closely related concepts. The rule: one option is exactly right and the rest are wrong for a reason you can name — never a "nearly right" option.
• Gap fill and short answer: for one step, one calculated result, one term written down. It is the fastest thing to mark, but it never shows how a student thought.
• Multi-step problems: for real application, with marks for the working as well as the answer, so you can see where a student stopped.
• The short essay question: for analysis or explanation in the student's own words, provided you give the number of lines and an expected time, and mark it with a short rubric rather than an impression.

Instructions a student understands first time

• Put the marks beside every question, and a section letter if the paper has sections.
• Say what you want in a calculation: "show your working", not "show your working where possible".
• Give the time for each section when a paper runs across more than one lesson, and say where answers go.
• Read the paper back with the eyes of a student of that age: a term that was never taught, or a question format they have not met, is enough to cost a mark for language rather than for the skill.

Write the answer key with the question, not after it

Write the correct answer in the moment you write the question. The habit exposes three faults before anything is printed: a question with no single right answer, a question with two defensible answers that takes half a mark off a student who was right, and marks that do not fit the time the question needs. For an essay question, write the three lines a full answer needs — that is the short mark scheme that keeps fifty scripts marked the same way.

Common faults in a test paper

• A mark total that does not equal the total printed on the cover.
• Marks that do not fit the time: a four-mark question that takes ten of the paper's forty minutes.
• "Always" and "never" in multiple-choice options: the question then tests exam technique rather than the subject.
• A question that needs a fact the paper never gives in the text or the data.
• No easy opening section: the student starts at the hardest question, loses time, and finishes with a mark below what they know.

The template, ready to print

The template is two pages: the first holds the paper's own details (school, class, subject, term, time, total marks) with the table of specifications and the fields for questions and marks; the second holds the answer key and a short rubric for the essay question. Write on it, or move the fields into your school's own format, then print as many copies as the class needs.

Download the template (PDF)

The template is free and needs no subscription. You will be asked for your name and email so we know who downloads our files, and the consent box is optional: you get the file either way. See ourprivacy notice.

Write your paper with EdSmartly

In EdSmartly you give the grade, the subject, the topic, the number of questions and their types, and Assessments drafts a paper with its mark scheme, every question tied to the skill it measures. Read it, change it, then approve it: once approved you can print the paper, download it as an editable Word file, or export it to Moodle or as QTI. Until you approve it the draft stays marked "not yet reviewed", and printing and downloading are both held back.

A paper can be reviewed in English, in Arabic, or in both side by side, so an English-medium class gets a checked paper while the Arabic version stays the original.

Make a test paper

A teacher can try EdSmartly free for 15 days on their own account, with no card. After that it is $7 a month, and you can cancel at any time. To see everything else, read what you can do in EdSmartly, or print a worksheet to revise the topic before the test.

For school leaders

A school starts with a one-term pilot or a licence that covers every teacher. If you want the whole school working the same way, leave your details and a person will come back to you, not an autoresponder.