Literature on the development of classroom achievement tests for high school and college level hearing impaired students is reviewed, with emphasis on achievement tests designed to ascertain whether a particular unit of instruction has been understood as it was presented. The paper reviews: the syntactical structure and vocabulary of test items; item format; modes of delivery of test instructions and items; test-wiseness and propensity for guessing; and non-paper and pencil assessment techniques. The authors contend that research has suffered from an emphasis on the written and spoken language production of hearing impaired students, as opposed to the syntactical structures and vocabulary which they can accurately comprehend. They recommend a number of strategies for testing hearing impaired students: (1) confine test items to a vocabulary level appropriate for students; (2) avoid complex and compound sentences; (3) minimize complex negation formations and items in which the correct answer is a negative answer; (4) be aware that fill-in-the blanks and short answer items are often easier for students to understand than multiple-choice or matching items; (5) include complete written instructions and reinforce them with manual communication; and (6) use visual aids to avoid narrative descriptions. Suggestions for future research are also included. (Author/JAC)