Examines the role of differentiated papers in Mode One Business Studies tests in promoting the goals of the United Kingdom's General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Explores the matching of candidates to papers, targeting papers, the nature of questions asked, and grading. Concludes that the technique allows students to advance through…

A comprehensive review is given of evidence, with a bearing on the recommendation to avoid use of complex multiple choice (CMC) items. Avoiding Type K items (four primary responses and five secondary choices) seems warranted, but evidence against CMC in general is less clear. (SLD)

Describes interactive computer quizzes on international business developed by the Center for Productive Communication at Texas Christian University's M.J. Neeley School of Business. Explains how to produce quizzes for classroom use. (RS)

A University of Adelaide (Australia) study investigated the effect of administering identical stations to different classes over a 12-year period within the objective structured clinical examination component of a final-year medical school examination. Repeat administrations correlated with improved student performance over time. (Author/MSE)

Describes changes being made in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and other standardized tests. Highlights include a history of standardized college entrance testing; the change process of the SAT; descriptions of the new SAT I Reasoning Tests and SAT II Subject Tests; comparisons between the old and the new SAT; and future possibilities. (LRW)

A review of five recent studies concludes that on multiple-choice tests, changing uncertain answers improves results; testing plus feedback produces more learning than additional study time; students learn and retain more when they are tested more often; and question and completion formats are equally acceptable for multiple-choice items. (KS)

Discusses nine factors affecting the relationship between learning and test performance that can be controlled by the teacher: time on task, level of learning, question format, number of questions, inclusion of past work, difficulty level, grouping, use of new items, and difficulty distribution. (SR)

Describes the dual-focus approach to creating bilingual measures. This approach includes indigenous researchers from the culture studied as members of a team to develop a concept-driven, rather than translation-driven, research plan and protocol. Illustrates the approach with examples of creating new measures in Spanish and English. (SLD)

Investigates the joint effects of locus of control and test format on test anxiety with college students (N=86). Examines the relationship between students' attitudes toward test format and test anxiety. Results show no differential effect of locus of control on test anxiety across test format; students were more anxious about essay tests than…

Studied the cross-mode equivalence of paper-and-pencil and computer-based clerical tests with 141 undergraduates. Found no differences across modes for the two types of tests. Differences can be minimized when speeded computerized tests follow the same administration and response procedures as the paper format. (SLD)

Accounting students (n=202) had different preferences for learning discrete facts, quick and easy problems, and new and ambiguous situations. On a multiple-choice test and unstructured task completed by 73 students, preference for quick and easy problems distinguished poor and good performers on the task but not on the test. (SK)

This article describes the 2-5-8 Assessment Plan, an assessment process based on Bloom's taxonomy that allows students to choose test items to complete. Test items are given 2, 5, or 8 points depending on difficulty and students must choose any assignments that total ten points. Grading the assessments is discussed. (Contains one reference.) (CR)

Compared original intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnnaire short form to revised subscales using data from samples of 99 employees and 250 graduate and undergraduate students. Analyses from both samples indicate that revising the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales made little difference to the results obtained.…

The validity of a four-subtest short form of the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) was evaluated with 42 adolescent offenders. Findings support the clinical use of the short form as a good estimate of WISC-III full-scale IQ. (SLD)

Surveyed statistics students on: preferred methods of assessment; methods that induce the least anxiety; and methods that induce higher-order thinking, characteristics of students with the most negative overall attitudes toward assessments, and performance versus authentic assessments. Found that students preferred untimed assessments allowing use…