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of a prospective student's ability to undertake academic work in an English medium.

For some languages, English included, standardised achievement tests, or attainment tests, are available. These tests, cónstructed by organisations outside the schools, are designed for different levels .of achievement. They are usually prepared by experts, pre-tested, and revised where defects have been revealed. They are related directly to classroom lessons, units, or even a total curriculum.

6.3.3. Progress tests

Tests prepared by a teacher and given at the end of a chapter, course, or term are progress tests. Progress tests may be regarded as similar to achievement tests but narrower and much morę specific in scope. They help the teacher judge the degree of success of his/her teaching and to identify the weakness of the leamers.

Achievement test is a test which measures how much of a language someone has learned with reference to a particular course of study or programme of institution. The dijference between this and a morę generał type of test called proficiency test is that the latter is not linked to any particular course of instruction.

The test helps the teacher judge the success of his/her teaching and to identify the weakness es of his/her students.

A proficiency test might use similar test items but would not be linked to any particular textbook or language syllabus. (Richards 192:3)

6.3.4. Diagnostic tests

Tests set by teachers for their own classes, particularly informal tests during the course of the year's work, have a different purpose. They are designed to indicate the teacher and students areas of strengths and weaknesses. The results of these tests will show what sections of the work should be revised, restudied and where further practice is essential. They usually indicate to the teacher if the students are ready to move on to new work. Diagnostic tests are most useful if corrected thoroughly, returned promptly to students, discussed in class. These tests should be regarded as a natural step in the learning process. They should serve as a guide to the students as well as a guide to the teacher.

Diagnostic test is a test which is designed to show what skills or knowledge a learner knows and does not know. For example, a diagnostic pronunciation test may be used to measure the learner's pronunciation of English sounds. It would show which sounds a student is not able to pronounce. Diagnostic tests may be used to find out how much a learner knows before beginning a language course: (Richards 1992:106)

6.3.5. Placement tests

Certain proficiency tests and diagnostic tests can act in the role of placement tests whose purpose is to place a student in a particular level or section of a language curriculum or school. A placement test, or sometimes called a classification test, typically includes a sampling of materiał to be covered in the curriculum (i.e., it has content validity), and it thereby provides an indication of the point at which the student will find a level or class to be neither too easy nor too difficult, but to be appropriate.

Placement test is a test which is designed to place students at an appropriate level in a programme or course. The term "placement test| does not ref er to what a test contains or how it is constructed, but to the purpose for which it is used. Various types of test or testing procedurę (e.g. dictation, an interview, a grammar test) can be used for placement purposes. (Richards 1992:279)

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