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Gene, Nita, and Tomoyuki formed different opinions of what they

read, so how can subjectivity possibly determine a fair grade? As you

can tell from their experience, subjective tests are generally more

complex than objective ones. When taking subjective exams, you have

to do more than just select the correct answer from among several

choices: You have to create a concise, often original, answer in your

own words. This chapter will help you understand the different types

of subjective testing, what they test, and how to study for them.

THE PURPOSE OF SUBJECTIVE

TESTING

In the previous chapter, objective testing and the types of questions

you can expect to find on that type of test were discussed. The topic

of this chapter is subjective testing. This type of test often causes

more stress for students because the distinction between a right and

wrong answer is not always as clear as in objective testing. Also, in the

subjective test, students may be asked to expand their thoughts

beyond the facts that were taught in class, and they may be expected

to form their own opinions and then provide the statistics or facts to

support them. Subjective tests are almost always graded by people,

not machines, which means that human opinion enters into deter￾mining how right or wrong a response is.

So, what is subjective testing? Subjective exams may call for

responses ranging from a paragraph to several pages in length,

depending on what type of question is involved. Subjective testing

evaluates not only how well a student has memorized and can recall

facts and theories but often also requires that the student take the

information that was learned in the classroom and expand on it. By

using this form of test, the educator can assess not only how well stu￾dents have learned facts but also how well they have learned theory.

The questions on a subjective test usually encourage the student to uti￾lize a variety of skills, from critical thinking to creativity, from proper

spelling to proper sentence structure. The student will often need to take

pieces of information that were learned and meld them into a coherent

and convincing answer. Because the student is asked to formulate an

answer this way, the subjective test can be a bit more difficult to study for.

The three students in the opening vignette provide a perfect exam￾ple of the scoring process behind subjective tests. Although all three

34 10 SECRETS TO ACING ANY HIGH SCHOOL TEST