ABSTRACT

The study examined effect of standardized tests on academic achievement of SS2 students in mathematics in senior secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Based on the purpose ofthe study, five research questions and five corresponding hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted for the study was a pre-experimental design. The study involved five secondary schools each in the three Senatorial Districts of Akwa Ibom state with a total population of 6863 senior secondary schools two (SS2) students. A sample size of 480 students was drawn from the population. The approach adopted was purposive sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was Mathematics Achievement Test Researcher Standardized (MATRSD). The instrument was face and content validated. The reliability ofthe instrument was determined using Kuder-Richardson 20(KR-20) and the reliability index of 0.87 and above were established for all the instruments used. The mathematics teachers in the selected schools helped to teach the content areas covered by the test and it lasted for four weeks using the conventional approach as well as administration of the instrument. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using ttest of the dependent mean and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was found out that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of students in mathematics when assessed using teacher made test. It further revealed that assessment using standardized test have higher mean scores than those with teachersmade test. It was therefore concluded that the use of standardized tests in assessment of students produced higher achievement than the use ofteacher made tests. It was then recommended among others that students should be constantly assessed using standardized mathematics achievement instead ofteacher made test in mathematics.