The TIMSS Tests
The TIMSS 2003 tests in mathematics and science were based on the TIMSS
Assessment Frameworks and Specifications 2003 and were developed through
an international consensus-building process involving input from experts
in education, mathematics, science, and measurement. The tests contain
questions requiring students to select appropriate responses or to solve
problems and answer questions in an open-ended format.
The TIMSS 2003 tests were prepared in English and translated into 34 languages.
Each item is reproduced for the released item set as it was presented to
each of the TIMSS countries. In translating the tests or making adaptations
for cultural purposes, every effort was made to ensure that the meaning
and difficulty of items did not change. This process required an enormous
effort by the national centers, with many checks made along the way including
a rigorous translation verification process.
Download Released Item Sets
TIMSS and PIRLS are copyrighted and are registered
trademarks of IEA. Released items from TIMSS and PIRLS assessments
are for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes only.
Translated versions of items remain the intellectual property
of IEA. Although the items are in the public domain, please print
an acknowledgement of the source, including the year and name
of the assessment you are using. If you publish any part of the
released items from TIMSS 2003, please use the following acknowledgement:
SOURCE: TIMSS 2003 Assessment. Copyright © 2005
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA). Publisher: TIMSS & PIRLS
International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston
College.
Publications are available in Portable Document Format (PDF).
If you need to download a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader©,
which will enable you to read and print the reports, press
the icon below.
To view or download one or more of the released item sets,
please use the links below.
Across the top of each item is shown documentation about
the item: its unique identification number, subject and grade,
block number, and sequence number within the block. To the
right of each item is shown additional information about
the item: the content domain, main topic, cognitive domain,
and key. For multiple-choice items, the key for the correct
answer is provided. For constructed-response questions, the
scoring guide identifying categories of responses and their
codes is shown on the page following the item.
The TIMSS General Scoring Method
Both short-answer items and extended-response items are included
in the assessment. Short-answer items typically are worth
one score point and require a numerical response in mathematics or
a brief descriptive
response in science. Extended-response items are worth a
maximum of two score points and require students to show their work
or provide
explanations using words and/or diagrams to demonstrate their
conceptual and procedural knowledge.
Each constructed-response item
has its own scoring guide
that utilizes a two-digit scoring scheme to provide diagnostic
information. The first digit designates the correctness level
of the response:
2 for a two-point response, 1 for a 1-point response, and
7 for an incorrect response. The second digit, combined with
the first, represents
a diagnostic code used to identify specific types of approaches,
strategies, or common errors and misconceptions. A second
digit of 0-5 may be
used for pre-defined international codes at each correctness
level, while a second digit of 9 corresponds to “other” types
of responses that fall within the appropriate correctness
level but do not fit any of the pre-defined international codes. In
general,
only a few diagnostic codes are used to track high-frequency
correct or partial approaches or common misconceptions and errors,
and a particular
effort was made in TIMSS 2003 to minimize the number of diagnostic
codes used.
Assessment Design
The TIMSS design for 2003 divides the 313 items at fourth grade and
383 items at eighth grade into 28 item blocks at each grade, 14 mathematics
blocks labeled M01 through M14, and 14 science blocks labeled S01
through S14. Each block contains either mathematics items only or
science items only. This general block design is the same for both
grades, although the assessment time is 12 minutes for fourth-grade
blocks and 15 minutes for eighth-grade blocks. At the eighth grade,
six blocks in each subject (blocks 01 – 06) contain secure items
from 1995 and 1999 to measure trends and eight blocks (07 – 14)
contain new items developed for TIMSS 2003. Since fourth grade was
not included in the 1999 assessment, trend items from 1995 only were
available, and these were placed in the first three blocks. The remaining
11 blocks contain items new in 2003.
In the TIMSS 2003 design, the 28 blocks of items are distributed
across 12 student booklets. Each booklet consists of six blocks of
items. To enable linking between booklets, each block appears in two,
three, or four different booklets. The assessment time for individual
students is 72 minutes at fourth grade and 90 minutes at eighth grade,
which is comparable to that in the 1995 and 1999 assessments
Item Release Policy
TIMSS 2003 is the third assessment in a series of regular four-year
studies, providing trend data from 1995 and 1999. As in previous assessments,
the design for TIMSS 2003 and beyond (2007, 2011, etc.) provides for
retaining some of the items for the measurement of trend and releasing
some items into the public domain. In TIMSS 2003, half of the 14 assessment
blocks in each subject are released. The released blocks include all
three mathematics and three science blocks containing trend items
from 1995 (blocks M01 – M03, S01 – S03), one mathematics
and one science block of trend items from 1999 (blocks M04 and S04)
for eighth grade only, and three blocks of new mathematics and science
items and tasks developed for 2003 (blocks M09, M10, and M13; S09,
S10, and S13). As item blocks are released, new items will be developed
to take their place, and the release policy for future assessments
results in item blocks being cycled out after three assessments.
In the assignment of items to blocks in TIMSS 2003, particular attention
was paid to balancing the blocks with respect to content domain to
ensure that adequate numbers of items are held secure in each area
for the purposes of measuring trend in future studies. The released
item sets provide valuable information for interpreting the international
and national reports and for use in secondary analyses. Therefore,
it is also important that the released sets be representative of the
overall tests to provide as much information as possible about the
nature and scope of the tests. Approximately half of the items overall
and in each content domain are released and half are kept secure.
For more information about test development, scoring, assessment
design, and release of items, please see Chapter 2, Developing
the TIMSS 2003 Mathematics and Science Assessment and Scoring Guides,
in the TIMSS 2003 Technical Report.
