THE CERTIFICATION IN THE PROCESS OF ITEM WRITING

Certification commonly refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization. It is commonly known as a proof or a document proving that someone is qualified for a particular job, or that something is of proof quality. This confirmation is often provided by some form of external review, education or assessment. Then the certification in English may be referred to as the official document attesting to a status or level of achievement in the target language. Within the particular context of certification in the University of Veracruz, México, the official certification in English is known as EXAVER, which evaluates three levels of English: EXAVER 1, for A2, EXAVER 2 for B1, and EXAVER 3 for B2, as international standards of the Common European Framework or Reference state, and under the support of the British Council and the Cambridge University. This article centers its attention on the process of item writing carried out by the examiners, going from the specifications document to the editor’s final observations for the administration of the exams. The University has commonly offered two different periods of the year for the administration of the three level exams. In this document I will describe my personal participation in the administration of EXAVER level 2 at the Language Center Poza Rica in September 2016, having two groups of about twenty two candidates as participants who were only required to cover the indicated fees and to be not less than sixteen years old. the exams were graded and analyzed in order to get the final passing (A, B, C) or failing (D, E, F) results. The final statistics of each item of the exam allowed the Item Writers to analyze how weak the items would have been and thus continue the process of writing, this time making any possible improvement where necessary.