Tests used to measure achievement have been recorded for over 2000 years. Such tests have been used for selecting civil servants, as a basis of job promotions, and as criteria for determining the acceptance of ail individual for a college career, el al. One main purpose of tests should be, as Socrstes wanted, that is as a basis upon which an individual's knowledge and understanding could be clarified, strengthened and broadened. (1) Oral reports were used almost exclusively until Horace Mann in 1845 suggested the use of written examinations. Oral testing has been proven not to be a good way to determine a consumate evaluation of learning.(2) The use of written examinations has increased steadily and by 1944 there were 60 million standardized tests.The major function of a classroom test is to measure student achievement, and thus to contribute to the evaluation of his educational progress and attainments. Tests should be used only if they help in making educatioriitl decisions.(3)Some of the important factors which need to be considered in measuring the quality of a test are: relevance, balance, objectivity, specificity, difficulty, discrimination, fairness and speediness. (4) The purposes of :I school-wide testing program are tied directly arid completely to the educational objectives of the school system. In the last analysis the results of the testing program are to be used as a partial basis for evaluating the degree to which the students achieve the objectives which guide the instructional program in which they participate. ( 5 )There are two uses for test results, one classroom, one administrative. Classroom teachers may use tests to improve course work of student selection while administrators may use tests to determine the need of, or deletion of, specific courses in a given department. Dorothy Dadly (1960) showed t,het frequent examinations were a deterrent to true learning and that excessive importance was attached to them. (6) From these findings one must ask if the over-use of tests is a factor leading to poor educational progress, or wehther or not when tests are used properly they can serve to upgrade teaching and learning. Nevertheless, considering the large numbers of students attending schools, testing is the only practical way of evaluating.The pre-test, post-test experimental design has been used to measure achievement. (7) An example of such design was carried out in Los Angeles in 1962 by Ruth Rich, in a study of 959 tenth-and eleventh-grade students from eight city high schools. The study showed many health *A pre-test, post-test study of the usefulness of a general health course for college students was made a t the University of Massachusetts, during the period of September 1966 t o January 1967. The results of this study are discussed as well as comments on the potential need of R health course as a degree requirement.
