Problem Statement: Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is a sophisticated and efficient way of delivering examinations. In CAT, items for each examinee are selected from an item bank based on the examinee's responses to the items. In this way, the difficulty level of the test is adjusted based on the examinee's ability level. Instead of…

One form of adaptive testing involves a two-stage procedure. The first stage is the administration of a routing test. From this first test, an estimate of an examinee's ability is obtained. On the basis of this ability estimate, a second test focused on a given ability level is administered. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency…

Monte Carlo simulation procedures were used to study the psychometric characteristics of two two-stage adaptive tests and a conventional "peaked" ability test. Results showed that scores yielded by both two-stage tests better reflected the normal distribution of underlying ability. Ability estimates yielded by one of the two stage tests…

A study was conducted to compare tailored testing procedures based on a Bayesian ability estimation technique and on a maximum likelihood ability estimation technique. The Bayesian tailored testing procedure selected items so as to minimize the posterior variance of the ability estimate distribution, while the maximum likelihood tailored testing…

To what degree testing can become adaptive is considered in three ways: from a formal methodological perspective; from a human process, stability, perspective; and from a sub-system or component view within an adaptive instructional system (AIS). With the advent of large computer-based training systems, the opportunity to broadly implement…