Testing your Tests: Reliability Issues of Academic English Exams

Abstract

A testing unit or a tester when writing exam questions generally have millions of issues in mind such as, the reliability, validity, clarity of instructions, design, layout, organization, quality, and many more. However, testing units preparing tests for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) has some other concerns about their exams such as, appropriate topics for listening and reading texts, authenticity, etc. Test writers also have to consider the focus on language skills development, the full coverage of skills, effective learning tasks and the variation in the activity types for all faculties. The main purpose of the study in hand is to investigate the quality of the tests written for the freshman students of Izmir University of Economics. One of the other main purposes of the study is to evaluate the EAP tests written for this institution according to Olaofe’s (1994) eight criterion for good EAP tests.