TEACHER EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT
VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY-ALANGALANG
Binongtoan,Alangalang, Leyte, 6517, PHILIPPINES
Tel. Number : (053) 525-0140
Email: alangalang@vsu.edu.ph
Website: www.vsu.edu.ph

Lesson 3.3: Scoring Essay Test Items

Lesson Summary
One of the challenges for teachers with essay questions test is the scoring of student answers. There
are several instances that students make unnecessary speculations on the scores given by teachers to their
answer in essay questions.

Learning Outcome
1. Elaborate a practical way of scoring essay tests.

Motivation Question
Do you have any idea on how your teachers scored your essay tests? Was there a time when you
felt injustice with the score your teacher gave you in essay test? Why?

Discussion
Scoring essay test is vulnerable to the biases and prejudices of the teacher and other individuals
commissioned do the scoring. However, below is a very practical way of scoring essay test. First, is for the
teacher to avoid looking at the name of the student on the paper or not to require students to write their
names on their paper, instead use a unique identification number per student. Then proceed with the
following steps (Kelly, 2020):
1. Prepare the essay rubric ahead of time. Determine what you are looking for in the answer and
how many points you will assign for each aspect of the question.
2. Make an outline of the answer.
3. Score one item at a time. This will help you make sure that you use the same thinking and
standards for all students.
4. Avoid unnecessary interventions when scoring a certain question. Consistency will be
increased if you grade the same item on all the papers in one time.
5. If an important decision is to be made like an award or scholarship which is based on the
score for the essay, you need to have two or more independent scorers.
6. Be conscious of negative influences that can affect scoring essay test items. These include
handwriting and writing style bias, the length of the answer, and inclusion of irrelevant
material.
7. Answers that are on the borderline should be re-read before giving a final score.
 TEACHER EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT
VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY-ALANGALANG
Binongtoan,Alangalang, Leyte, 6517, PHILIPPINES
Tel. Number : (053) 525-0140
Email: alangalang@vsu.edu.ph
Website: www.vsu.edu.ph

The teacher may decide to use either a holistic or analytic rubric in scoring essay test items. The
finalization of the rubric should be participated by the students so that they will be guided on how they
should answer essay questions and have the chance to get the highest possible rating. Below is an example
of two kinds of rubric that can be used in scoring essay test questions:

A. Holistic rubric using five criteria on content, understanding and/or application, original thinking,
structure, and grammar and mechanics. It also uses a 5-point scale:

Scale Value Description

5 Excellent
4 Very good
3 Good
2 Needs improvement
1 No acceptable

1. Content. Addresses the question and all its parts thoroughly; incorporates relevant topic content; uses
specific information from a situation.
2. Understanding/Application. Demonstrates deep understanding of lesson concepts and ideas applied
to analysis of situations.
3. Original Thinking. Demonstrates original thinking that adds insight to analysis of a situation;
meaningful elaboration beyond text, notes, class discussion.
4. Structure. Answer to each part of the question is well organized and clearly written; there is evidence
of planning before writing.
5. Grammar and mechanics. Response is virally free of mechanical, grammatical writing errors.

B. Analytic rubric using three criteria on content and development, organization and structure, and
grammar, punctuation and spelling. It uses a 4-point scale:

Scale Value Description

4 Outstanding
3 Satisfactory
2 Needs improvement
1 No acceptable
 TEACHER EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT
VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY-ALANGALANG
Binongtoan,Alangalang, Leyte, 6517, PHILIPPINES
Tel. Number : (053) 525-0140
Email: alangalang@vsu.edu.ph
Website: www.vsu.edu.ph

Criteria Not acceptable Needs Satisfactory Outstanding

improvement
(1 pt) (3 pts) (4)
(2 pts)
Content and  Content is  Content is not  Content is  Content is
development incomplete comprehensive accurate comprehensive
 Major points  Major points and and persuasive
are not clear are addressed persuasive  Major points
 Specific but not well-  Major are stated
examples are supported points are clearly and are
not used  Response is stated well supported
inadequate or  Responses  Responses are
do not address are excellent,
topic adequate timely and
 Specific and address topic
examples do address  Content is clear
not support topic  Specific
topic  Content is examples are
clear used
 Specific
examples
are used
Organization  Organization  Structure of  Structure is
 Structure of the
and structure and structure the paper is mostly paper is easy
detract from not easy to clear and to follow
the message follow easy to  Transitions are
 Writing is  Transitions follow logical and
disjointed need  Transitions maintain the
and lacks improvement are present flow of thought
transition of  Conclusion is  Conclusion throughout the
thoughts missing or if is logical paper
provided, not  Conclusion is
flow from the logical and
body of the flows from the
paper body of the
paper
Grammar,  Paper  Paper contains  Rules of  Rules of
punctuation contains few grammar, grammar,
and spelling numerous grammatical, usage, and usage, and
grammatical, punctuation punctuation punctuation are
punctuation, are followed
 TEACHER EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT
VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY-ALANGALANG
Binongtoan,Alangalang, Leyte, 6517, PHILIPPINES
Tel. Number : (053) 525-0140
Email: alangalang@vsu.edu.ph
Website: www.vsu.edu.ph

and spelling and spelling followed  Spelling is

errors errors with minor correct
errors
 Spelling is
correct

Learning Task/Activity
1. Sometimes, it really happens that some teachers find it difficult to distant himself from the
score he gives to student’s answers to essay questions. Using your own words, make a plan
on how you are going to score essay test items. Write your plan in a yellow paper and
submit it along with the assessment in the lesson.

Assessment
 Write at least three examples of essay questions and provide answers to the questions.
 Cite at least five possible sources of teacher’s subjectivity in scoring essay test items. Discuss
how a teacher can minimize or avoid each source of bias.