Test Analysis

The elements of Test Analysis: 

In order to receive full credit, each test analysis must contain:

• The original question and all possible answer choices
• An explanation of your original understanding and/or thought process for selecting your answer.
• Your enhanced understanding after class discussion/analysis of the question.
• Credit to students and or teacher for information that aided you in your enhanced understanding.
• An explanation of why the other answer choices were inadequate.
• When appropriate, a reference to specifics in the passage/quotes.

The conventions of standard written English apply. As this is a meta-cognitive activity, you should be writing in the first-person.

Below is a sample from one of  last year's students. (Based on A Streetcar Named Desire.)
(This is the student's original writing - no corrections were made.)

_____________________________________________________________________

When the playwright describes Blanche’s outfit as “incongruous to the setting” he means that she is

A. dirty and tired from traveling

B. wealthy and self-assured

C. practical and pragmatic

D. fragile and delicate

E. urbane and sophisticated

            This question presented me with some difficulty because I was not sure what I should choose since most of the options seemed to make sense. The answer that I inevitably chose was E. I thought that since she was dressed so nicely with her white clothing that she was considered sophisticated based on the setting of New Orleans being more like a party setting. However, the correct answer was D. Lauren said that she got the feeling that Blanche was delicate. She also said that answer choice A would not work because she was well dressed therefore did not look dirty and tired from traveling. Answer choice B would not work because she was not self-assured and gave off a tone of being stressed even though she did present herself as wealthy. Lauren said that she did not consider answer choice C because she was not sure what the words meant therefore she stayed clear of it. Finally, she said answer choice E did not work because Blanche was not sophisticated because she was from the country side. Therefore, answer choice D makes the most sense. Blanche comes to New Orleans as a fragile and delicate woman with a lot of history behind her belt and therefore needs the most help and guidance even though throughout the story she becomes more degraded and insane from Stanley’s influence. I now understand why the correct answer is D and why my answer choice of E does not make sense within the context of the story and the question.