In a review of relevant literature, it is argued that correction for guessing formulas should not be used. It is contended that such formulas correct for guessing that does not really exist in a noticeable amount, penalize those students who have low self-esteem and self-confidence, correct for errors that are not necessarily errors, benefit risk…

Ordinal response modes for multiple choice tests are those under which the examinee marks one or more choices in an effort to identify the correct choice, or include it in a proper subset of the choices. Two ordinal response modes: answer-until-correct, and Coomb's elimination of choices which examinees identify as wrong, were analyzed for scoring…

Because previous reports have suggested that the lowered validity of tests scored with empirical option weights might be explained by a capitalization of the keying procedures on omitting tendencies, a procedure was devised to key options empirically with a "correction-for-guessing" constraint. Use of the new procedure with Graduate…

A scoring technique for true-false tests is presented. The technique, paired item scoring, involves combining two statements and having the student select one of the four resultants possible: true-true, false-true, true-false, and false-false. The combined item is treated as a multiple choice item. (Author/JKS)

One means of learning about the processes operating in a multiple choice test is to include some test items, called nonsense items, which have no correct answer. This paper compares two versions of a mathematical model of test performance to interpret test data that includes both genuine and nonsense items. One formula is based on the usual…

Investigates the reliability and validity of scores yielded from a new scoring formula. (Author/DEP)

There have been many attempts to formulate a procedure for extracting information from incorrect responses to multiple choice items, i.e., the assessment of partial knowledge. The results of these attempts can be described as inconsistent at best. It is hypothesized that these inconsistencies arise from three methodological problems: the…

A methodology for investigating the influence of correction-for-guessing directions and formula scoring on test performance was studied. Experts in the test content field used a judgmental item appraisal system to estimate the knowledge of the minimally competent candidate (MCC) and to predict those items that the MCC would omit on the test under…

On the basis of past research efforts to improve multiple-choice test information through differential weighting of responses to wrong answers (distractors), two statistical indices are developed. Each describes the properties of response distributions across the options of an item. Jaspen's polyserial generalization of the biserial correlation…

A 15-stage pyramidal test and a 40-item two-stage test were constructed and administered by computer to 111 college undergraduates. The two-stage test was found to utilize a smaller proportion of its potential score range than the pyramidal test. Score distributions for both tests were positively skewed but not significantly different from the…