• Catherine M. Roble

  Author

This descriptive study aimed at finding out the level of response of students in
communicative test in terms of reliability index, items’ mean difficulty, discrimination index,
item fit, clarity of language, how the items were constructed, the options used, whether there
were items functioning differently, if item characteristics match the ability of students, what the
hierarchy of skill indicators is, what model test can be developed for students, and what syllabus
can be designed out of the model.
Samples were 283 students from four universities in Davao City. It was found out that
the reliability index of the communicative test is .81, items’ mean difficulty is .419,
discrimination indices ranged from .20-.62, item fit ranged from .56-1.44 to 0.93-1.07, language
of the test is clear, construction of items observed principles of testing, options were parallel,
parameter estimates were -0.303, 0.600, -0.613, and 0.316 for the four universities, that is,
positively for students from University B; item characteristics matched the ability of students;
hierarchy of skill indicators began with expressing gratitude appropriately, advances to
inferring meaning through context, and giving meaning to unknown words; based on findings,
the model test developed was communicative and was reliable, valid, practical, and fit to
students’ abilities; enhanced syllabus designed was competency-based.

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