As an informational aid for students who are planning to take NLN (National League of Nursing) Achievement Tests, the text and accompanying exercises in this module describe NLN testing procedures and fundamental test-taking skills. After introductory material discussing the importance of mastering test-taking skills, the module describes how to…

A comparison was made between four different scoring procedures for the 45-item Reading Comprehension subtest, Level I, of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, Form S, for a sample of 1,000 third grade students. These students were selected to have been among those who omitted from 3 to 22 of the 45 items. Another representative sample of 1,300…

The outcomes of two scoring methods (one based on an error analysis and the second on a conventional method) on free-response tests, compared in terms of reliability and dimensionality, indicates the conventional method is inferior in both aspects. (Author/PN)

This English Language Arts Achievement Test was designed to evaluate the writing skills of third grade students. It includes instructions in which students are asked to write their own stories after reading a "story starter." The test instructs students to use their imaginations to finish the story and encourages them to do a prewriting…

It has been demonstrated that corrected-for-guessing scores will be superior to number-right scores in providing estimates of examinee standing on the trait measured by a multiple-choice test, if it can be assumed that examinees can and will comply with the appropriate directions. The purpose of the present study was to test the validity of that…

These studies in test adequacy focus on two problems: procedures for estimating reliability, and techniques for identifying ineffective distractors. Fourteen papers are presented on recent advances in measuring achievement (a response to Molenaar); "an extension of the Dirichlet-multinomial model that allows true score and guessing to be…

During 1969 the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement began a series of cross-cultural studies to investigate the workings of multiple-choice achievement tests and student guessing behaviors. Empirical models to correct for guessing are discussed in terms of test item difficulty, number of response choices,…

The Ohio Vocational Achievement Tests are specially designed instruments for use by teachers, supervisors, and administrators to evaluate and diagnose vocational achievement for improving instruction in secondary vocational programs at the 11th and 12th grade levels. This guide explains the Ohio Vocational Achievement Tests and how they are used.…

A specially designed answer format was used for three tests in a college level agriculture class of 19 students to record responses to three things about each item: (1) the student's choice of the best answer; (2) the degree of certainty with which the answer was chosen; and (3) all the answer choices which the student was certain were incorrect.…

The concept of testing for partial knowledge is considered with the concept of tailored testing. Following the special usage of latent trait theory, the word valdity is used to mean the correlation of a test with the construct the test measures. The concept of a method factor in the test is also considered as a part of the validity. The possible…

This study empirically determined the optimizing weight to be applied to the Wrongs Total Score in scoring rubrics of the general form = R - kW, where S is the Score, R the Rights Total, k the weight and W the Wrongs Total, if reliability is to be maximized. As is well known, the traditional formula score rests on a theoretical framework which is…

The author surveys literature and practice, primarily in Great Britain and the United States, about multiple-choice testing, comments on criticisms, and defends the state of the art. Varous item types, item writing, test instructions and scoring formulas, item analysis, and test construction are discussed. An extensive bibliography is appended.…

While most school districts believe they understand grade equivalent scores, teachers, parents, and measurement specialists frequently misinterpret this apparently simple statistical expression. Echternacht's article describes the construction, application, and interpretation of grade equivalent scores from the test publisher's perspective.…

A number of strategies are described for adapting ability test items to individual differences in ability levels of testees. Each strategy consists of a different set of rules for selecting the sequence of test items to be administered to a given testee. Advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are discussed, and research issues unique to the…