Testing in the Syrian educational system has been growing in the past six years with the average number of tests that schools and colleges set every year increased three-folds. This test inflation paved the way to the birth of a ‘testocracy’ that bro
ught about new challenges for stakeholders and test developers. Of all the tests that Syrian students take, the National Baccalaureate Examination (NBE from here onwards) is the most critical. In the present research we try to shed light on one part of this test, namely the NBE of English language. Within the broad lines of language testing, we aimed to investigate the possibility of predicting certain facets of test impact via close examination of the test template in isolation from other factors in the teaching/learning environment.
Washback and commutative testing possess direct impact on the
outcome quality of education. They have, therefore, been looked at
thoughtfully by specialists in the field of testing, measurement and
assessment in the last decade. The Arabic library
, however, lacks
materials on those two themes, which was the objective behind
publishing this paper in one of Arabic periodicals, with the goal to draw
the attention of stakeholders and policy makers to the influence of
washback and commutative testing possess on the curriculum. The
methodology of the current paper tends to focus on applied perspectives
with simplicity and illustration of models and examples.
