Due to the high-stakes nature of medical exams it is prudent for test agencies to critically evaluate test data and control for potential threats to validity. For the typical multiple station performance assessments used in medicine, it may take time for examinees to become comfortable with the test format and administrative protocol. Since each…

Over the past twenty years in performance testing a specific item type with distinguishing characteristics has arisen time and time again. It's been invented independently by dozens of test development teams. And yet this item type is not recognized in the research literature. This article is an invitation to investigate the item type, evaluate…

In this study, items were drawn from a full-length test of 30 items in order to construct shorter tests for the purpose of making accurate pass/fail classifications with regard to a specific criterion point on the latent ability metric. A three-item parameter Item Response Theory (IRT) framework was used. The criterion point on the latent ability…

The objective of this study was to determine the degree to which recommendations for passing scores, calculated on the basis of a traditional standard-setting methodology, might be affected by the mode (paper versus computer-screen prints) in which test items were presented to standard setting panelists. Results were based on the judgments of 31…

Two methods--non-distributional and normal--are derived for estimating measures of pass-fail reliability. Both are based on the Spearman Brown formula and require only a single test administration. Results from a simulation (n=20,000 examinees) and a licensure examination (n=4,828 examinees) illustrate these methods. (SLD)

A part-form methodology was used to study the effect of varying degrees of multidimensionality on the consistency of pass/fail classification decisions obtained from simulated unidimensional item response theory (IRT) based licensure examinations. A control on the degree of form multidimensionality permitted an assessment throughout the range of…

The level of confidence in pass/fail decisions obtained with computerized adaptive tests and paper-and-pencil tests was greater for 645 medical technology students when the computer adaptive test implemented a 90 percent confidence stopping rule than for paper-and-pencil tests of comparable length. (SLD)