Flow of Matter and Energy

I don’t feel that the assessment accurately measured what I know pertaining to the flow of matter and energy through a system.  A couple things I don’t care for in the design of these assessments is the wording.  From the lower elementary perspective we try to state the question simply.  I felt that majority of the questions were very wordy.  I may feel this way because I do not work with these specific terms on a regular basis.  I found myself rereading the questions and options several times before making my selection.  Multiple choice tests make it hard to get a true reading on the knowledge of the test taker.  A test that offers a variety of question types would allow for a better opportunity for the test taker to express their knowledge on the topic.
One thing this assessment did that I found helpful were the different visuals and labels included with the majority of the questions.  I suspect that students would find these visuals very helpful as well.  I would be sure to use these same visuals or similar ones when teaching the concepts in the classroom prior to the test.  Encouraging students to draw their own representation of the concepts in their science notebook I feel would be beneficial to them and help with their recall.