We offer here some suggestions for constructing tests and assignments which we believe will apply across the various disciplines. Despite these differences, all TAs carry the common responsibility of mediating between the test or assignment and the student. It seems as if this question somehow degrades the loftier goals to which teachers aspire. On another level, though, the students who ask this question are acting on the very reasonable assumption that what is taught should be congruent with what is tested. Yet in many courses, the relationship between the two is unclear.
Testing is, in part, a way of ranking students.
Any sort of test can differentiate students' performance. Because teachers can create a distribution of grades based on any criteria they choose, they must be careful not to assume that the tests they create necessarily measure intelligence, effort, or achievement. People who construct tests must work consciously to ensure that they have measured what they intended to measure. It is not uncommon, however, for a teacher inadvertently to construct a test which measures skills which were not taught in the course. As you begin thinking about test or paper questions it is important to keep in mind your curriculum, the level at which you teach, and your goals for the course.