I.
PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
Practicality
A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical.
A test of language proficiency that take a student five hours to complete is
impractical-it consumes more time (and money) than necessary to accomplish its
objective. A test that requires individual one-on-one proctoring is impractical
for a group of several hundred test-takers and only a handful of examiners. A
test that takes a few minutes for a student to take and several hours for an
examiner to evaluate is impractical for most classroom situations. A test that
can be scored only by a computer is impractical if the test takes place a
thousand miles away from the nearest computer. The value and quality of a test
sometimes hinge on such nitty-gritty, practical considerations.
