The Development and Validation of Science Achievement Test

Academic achievement is often regarded as a determinant of academic success. One of the most common assessment tools to evaluate the student achievement is through a well set achievement test. The main objective of the study was to develop and validate an achievement test in Science for senior secondary school students of grade 10. A Science Achievement Test (SAT) was developed by an excellent teacher in science subject based on Malaysia Science Curriculum Specification. The SAT consists of 50 multiple choice questions, which include the all 8 chapters in grade 10 science. The SAT had been validated by experts and analysed to check the difficulty index (p) and discrimination index (d), internal consistency reliability. Data were obtained from a purposive sampling of 50 students in a pilot study carried out in a secondary school in Sarawak, Malaysia. Based on the difficulty index, there are 12 easy items, 33 moderate items and 5 difficult items. 7 items found to be poor items and needed to be modified or removed due to the poor discriminating power. The reliability of SAT based on KR20 and Split half method showed the coefficient of 0.862 and 0.851 respectively. From the study, the SAT was a valid and reliable tool for measuring the students achievement in science. Keywords: Science achievement test, validity, reliability, difficulty index, discriminant index DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-20-12 Publication date:July 31st 202