The purpose of the booklet is to help high school and college chemistry teachers write better classroom tests. The booklet grew out of several booklets that were used by ACS test committees in constructing high school and college tests for all fields of chemistry. Assessment is a vital part of teaching, and the ACS Examinations Institute has almost seventy years of leadership experience in providing the materials for meaningful assessment practices. It is our experience that chemistry teachers shy away from protracted theoretical discussions of assessment theory and seek practical and easy to apply approaches to constructing and analyzing their tests. We have tried to provide such a guide here. Individuals seeking a more esoteric, or comprehensive, discussion of test construction will wish to consult a standard textbook on educational measurement.

Principles of overall test design and item construction guidelines are presented in Section 1 of the booklet. This section also contains guidelines for conversion of multiple-choice items to other commonly-used formats, such as true/false, short answer, and free response items. Section 2 offers some suggestions for incorporating items with novel formats, constructing conceptual questions, and resources for laboratory practical questions. Overall test statistics and item statistics are powerful tools for improving the quality of chemistry examinations, and this subject is addressed in Section 3. Definitions of commonly used statistical measures are presented, and guidelines for gathering and interpreting these measures are given.

These principles, suggestions and guidelines have proven helpful to the many chemistry teachers involved in writing examinations through the Examinations Institute of the American Chemical Society's Division of Chemical Education. If you choose to obtain the booklet, we hope that you also find this information of genuine use in preparing and interpreting your classroom tests.