What do I want to know?

First, you’ll want to think about what you want to know about your students and the skills that you want to measure. It’s important to determine why you are testing your students and your purposes for testing.

The purposes for testing vary from situation to situation. When looking for a test that matches your purposes, ask yourself:

• Do I want to know about students’ mastery of a specific curriculum, course, or unit?
• Do I want to know about students’ general language skills?