What aspect is critical for the validity of a written test?

The validity of a written test is fundamentally tied to its relevance to the instructional goals. When a test accurately measures what it is intended to measure—such as specific knowledge or skills relevant to the learning objectives—it provides a true assessment of a student’s understanding and abilities in relation to the course content.

If a written test includes questions that are closely aligned with the established instructional goals, it ensures that the results are meaningful. This alignment verifies that the test is not merely assessing general knowledge or unrelated skills, but is instead directly evaluating the competencies that were the focus of instruction. In this way, the test can effectively gauge whether students have achieved the desired outcomes.

While factors like the length of questions, level of difficulty, and format of questions may influence a student's ability to take the test effectively, they do not directly address whether the test is assessing the intended content. Therefore, it is the relevance to instructional goals that is critical for the validity of any written test.