In self-adapted testing (SAT), examinees select the difficulty level of items administered. This study investigated three variations of prior information provided when taking an SAT: (1) no information (examinees selected item difficulty levels without prior information); (2) view (examinees inspected a typical item from each difficulty level…

No significant differences in performance on a self-adapted test or anxiety were found for college students (n=218) taking a self-adapted test who selected item difficulty without any prior information, inspected an item before selecting, or answered a typical item and received performance feedback. (SLD)

Items with the highest discrimination parameter values in a logistic item response theory (IRT) model do not necessarily give maximum information. This paper shows which discrimination parameter values (as a function of the guessing parameter and the distance between person ability and item difficulty) give maximum information for the…

Previous studies have shown that, when administered a self-adapted test, a few examinees will choose item difficulty levels that are not well-matched to their proficiencies, resulting in high standard errors of proficiency estimation. This study investigated whether the previously observed effects of a self-adapted test--lower anxiety and higher…

When an examination consists, in whole or in part, of constructed response items, it is a common practice to allow the examinee to choose among a variety of questions. This procedure is usually adopted so that the limited number of items that can be completed in the allotted time does not unfairly affect the examinee. This results in the de facto…

A new testing strategy that provides protection against the problem of having examinees in adaptive testing choose difficulty levels that are not matched to their proficiency levels was introduced and evaluated. The method, termed restricted self-adapted testing (RSAT), still provides examinees with a degree of control over the difficulty levels…