Using multiple versions of an assessment has the potential to introduce item environment effects. These types of effects result in version dependent item characteristics (i.e., difficulty and discrimination). Methods to detect such effects and resulting implications are important for all levels of assessment where multiple forms of an assessment…

GCSE examinations (taken by students aged 16 years in England) are not intended to be speeded (i.e. to be partly a test of how quickly students can answer questions). However, there has been little research exploring this. The aim of this research was to explore the speededness of past GCSE written examinations, using only the data from scored…

A psychological framework for different types of items commonly used with mixed-format exams is proposed. A choice model based on signal detection theory (SDT) is used for multiple-choice (MC) items, whereas an item response theory (IRT) model is used for open-ended (OE) items. The SDT and IRT models are shown to share a common conceptualization…

We developed the Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy (PIQL) to assess students' quantitative reasoning in introductory physics contexts. The PIQL includes several "multiple-choice-multipleresponse" (MCMR) items (i.e., multiple-choice questions for which more than one response may be selected) as well as traditional single-response…

The landscape of undergraduate biology education has been shaped by decades of reform efforts calling for instruction to integrate core concepts and scientific skills as a means of helping students become proficient in the discipline. Assessments can be used to make inferences about how these reform efforts have translated into changes in…

Purpose: Researchers discovered that when students were given the opportunity to change their answers, a majority changed their responses from incorrect to correct, and this change often increased the overall test results. What prompts students to modify their answers? This study aims to examine the modification of scientific reasoning test, with…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" calls for new assessments that measure students' integrated three-dimensional science learning. The National Research Council has suggested that these assessments utilize a combination of item formats including constructed-response and multiple-choice. In this study, students were randomly assigned…

Multiple-choice questions (MCQ) are commonly used on histology examinations. There are many guidelines for how to properly write MCQ and many of them recommend avoiding negatively worded stems. The current study aims to investigate differences between positively and negatively worded stems in a medical histology course by comparing the item…

Testlets have advantages such as making it possible to measure higher-order thinking skills and saving time, which are accepted in the literature. For this reason, they have often been preferred in many implementations from in-class assessments to large-scale assessments. Because of increased usage of testlets, the following questions are…

Different versions of multiple-choice exams were administered to an undergraduate class in human physiology as part of normal testing in the classroom. The goal was to evaluate whether the number of options (possible answers) per question influenced the effectiveness of this assessment. Three exams (each with three versions) were given to each of…

Optics is a core field in the curricula of secondary physics education. In this study, we present the development and validation of a test instrument in the field of optics, the ray optics in converging lenses concept inventory (ROC-CI). It was developed for and validated with middle school students, but can also be adapted for the use in higher…

Open ended and multiple choice questions are commonly placed on the same tests; however, there is a discussion on the effects of using different item types on the test and item statistics. This study aims to compare model and item fit statistics in a mixed format test where multiple choice and constructed response items are used together. In this…

Speeded tests set time limits so that few examinees can reach all items, and power tests allow most test-takers sufficient time to attempt all items. Educational achievement tests are sometimes described as "timed power tests" because the amount of time provided is intended to allow nearly all students to complete the test, yet this…

Constructed response items can both measure the coherence of student ideas and serve as reflective experiences to strengthen instruction. We report on new automated scoring technologies that can reduce the cost and complexity of scoring constructed-response items. This study explored the accuracy of c-rater-ML, an automated scoring engine…

The purpose of this study was to examine eighth-grade students' science performance in terms of two test design components, item format, and cognitive domain. The portion of Taiwanese data came from the 2011 administration of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), one of the major international large-scale assessments…