Placement test template for the start of a training course

The template prints from the browser as it is, for a paper session in the room. It imports into Evalmee by copying its questions into the Excel import template, which accepts sections, question texts, tags, points and choices.

There is no file to download and no e-mail address to leave: the full content is below, with the correct answers and the competency each question targets. The Competency column becomes a tag in the Excel template, and the points of each question become its marking scheme.

The test is designed to last thirty minutes: two prerequisite questions, eighteen questions spread over three blocks, then a one-minute self-assessment. Closed questions rely on automatic markingAutomatic markingThe award of points by the platform, with no human intervention, for questions whose expected answer can be decided in advance: multiple choice, matching, fill-in-the-blanks, a numeric value within a stated tolerance. It makes the result immediate and removes marker-to-marker variability on those items entirely.See the full definition; the two short open questions take a few seconds each to read.

A course adapted to the people who take it starts with knowing what they already know. Quality frameworks for training providers say the same thing in their own words: the provider identifies each participant's needs and prior achievements at the start of the service, and keeps a trace of it. None of them imposes a format. A paper test, an online questionnaire or an interview all qualify, provided the procedure exists, is applied, and leaves a trace.

A useful placement testPlacement testA test taken at the start of a course or training programme to locate each participant against the objectives of the pathway: what they already master, what they lack, and therefore where to begin. It is the form diagnostic assessment takes in vocational training. A placement test differs from a level test, which ranks a person on a general scale, A2 or B1 in a language for instance, with no reference to a particular course; placement measures the gap between what a participant brings on entry and the content of a given programme. Its result is not a mark that counts: it serves to adapt the duration, the pace or the modules, to exempt participants from what is already acquired, and as a baseline for measuring progress at the end of the course. Example: before a thirty-hour spreadsheet course, a fifteen-question test spread over formulas, references, sorting and charts; a participant who passes the first two blocks skips the first day. Quality frameworks for training providers generally ask that needs and prior achievements be identified on entry to the programme; the test, its grid and the report handed to the participant are the usual evidence. In the UK and the US, colleges use placement tests to assign students to the right level of a course, most often in mathematics, writing and languages.See the full definition measures the gap between what the participant already knows and what the course will teach. It therefore covers the content of the programme, competency by competency, and not a general scale. A diagnostic assessmentDiagnostic assessmentAn assessment placed before teaching or training begins, in order to establish what learners already know and what they lack. It does not count towards progression: its result serves to form groups, to adjust the pace, to route learners to a pathway, or to identify missing prerequisites before they block the rest of the programme. It differs from formative assessment in its timing, before learning rather than during it, and from summative assessment in its function, informing rather than sanctioning. Example: before a statistics module, a twenty-question quiz on fractions, percentages and reading a chart; the participants who fail the percentages take a refresher session before the first class. To be useful, a diagnostic assessment must cover the programme's real prerequisites, not its content, and return a result that reads by skill rather than as a single mark: an overall score of fifty per cent does not say what to revise. In vocational training, the placement test at entry is its most common form; compared with an end-of-course assessment, it also serves to measure progress.See the full definition is the pedagogical name of the same act; a level test, by contrast, ranks a person on a scale with no reference to a specific course, such as A2 or B1 in a language.

The result is not a mark that counts. It is there to decide: waive a module already mastered, add a refresher session, adjust the duration. That decision, and the trace of the test it rests on, is what an auditor or a corporate client reads.

The template has twenty questions: two prerequisites, then three blocks of six questions. Each block mixes single-choice questions and, for two of them, a short open question. Closed questions are worth one point, open questions two points.

Three blocks are enough for most short courses: they match the three competencies the programme announces. The single-answer MCQMCQ (multiple-choice question)A closed question offering several possible answers, one or more of which are correct; the candidate ticks the ones they accept, and that set of ticks is their answer. A test made of such questions is a multiple-choice questionnaire, and the abbreviation MCQ is used for both the question and the test. A single-answer MCQ has exactly one correct option; a multiple-answer MCQ requires the candidate to tick every correct option and no wrong one. Example: “Which of these four statements about mitosis are correct?”, with two correct options out of four. The format allows instant automatic marking, covers a lot of content in little time and yields statistics for every question. Its quality rests almost entirely on the distractors: wrong options that look plausible to someone who has not understood and are dismissed at once by someone who has. An MCQ measures poorly the ability to produce, structure or justify an argument, and it leaves a share to chance that the marking scheme has to handle: partial credit, negative marking or discordance scoring, depending on the institution's assessment regulations.See the full definition dominates because it marks itself and covers a lot of content in little time. The short open questionShort open-answer questionA question calling for a written answer of a few words to a few lines, with no options offered. It removes guessing and forces the candidate to recall rather than recognise, while staying short enough to be marked quickly, either by hand or with automated assistance.See the full definition placed at the end of two blocks checks that the participant can produce, and not only recognise: a formula written by hand says more than four boxes.

This part carries no points. It helps read the score: a participant who uses a spreadsheet every day and fails block 2 does not have the same need as one who is discovering it.

Two questions on what the course assumes is known. A participant who fails both belongs in an introductory course, not the intermediate level.

Five single-choice questions, one point each, then a short open question worth two points. Maximum block score: seven points.

Five single-choice questions, one point each, then a formula to write, worth two points. Maximum block score: seven points.

Six single-choice questions, one point each. Maximum block score: six points.

The participant ticks one level per competency. This part carries no points: it is compared with the score of the matching block. A gap between the two is information in itself.

Self-assessmentSelf-assessmentA learner's appraisal of their own work against explicit criteria. It develops the ability to judge where one stands, a condition of genuine autonomy, but its results correlate weakly with external assessment for as long as the criteria have not been worked on beforehand.See the full definition correlates weakly with the score as long as the criteria have not been explained. That is why each line describes a concrete action, not a notion: participants know whether they have already done a mail merge, they do not always know whether they "master word processing".

The score is read block by block, never as a total. A participant with 7 out of 7 in spreadsheet and 2 out of 7 in word processing is not "intermediate": they can be exempted from block 2 and are a priority for block 1.

The thresholds below are a starting point. They are set against the programme: if the spreadsheet module opens with absolute references, a participant who fails question 7 stays in the planned programme even with 60% on the block. One prerequisite missed out of two is discussed with the participant; both missed points to an introductory course.

The template is rewritten block by block. Keep the structure, replace the content: one block per competency announced in your programme, six to eight questions per block, one short open question wherever recognising is not enough.

For a language course, the blocks become reading comprehension, written expression and grammar; the short open question becomes three sentences to produce about a work situation, marked with a criterion-based scheme. The levels of the grid then align with the levels the programme targets, A2 towards B1 for instance, rather than on percentages alone.

For a workplace safety course, the prerequisite is regulatory: the question covers what the person is allowed to do today, and a missed prerequisite closes access to the practical block.

On paper, the template prints and is marked with the Correct answer column; the score per block is copied onto the sheet. Online, the questions are copied into Evalmee's Excel import template, and the test is run from the diagnostic and placement page.

In Evalmee, each question carries up to two tags: the competency from the template's column, and the block. Closed questions mark themselves according to the scheme entered; the two open questions are read on the paper. In criterion-based assessment mode, a mark per criterion appears next to the overall mark, which gives the reading per block with no manual calculation. The full approach, random draw included, is described on the online placement test page.

After the test, the Statistics screen shows the minimum, average and maximum mark, then the success rate question by question: a question missed by the whole group flags a point to cover in the very first session. Marks export to Excel, marked papers to PDF, with the start and end of each attempt time-stamped. That is the trace an audit expects; what Evalmee produces for it, line by line, is detailed on the training providers page.

Evalmee is not the right choice for a group of six people gathered in a room with a trainer who marks on the spot: paper is enough, and the template is made for that. It brings something when participants are remote, when sessions repeat, or when the proof must be found two years later without opening a cupboard.