Five of the common misuses of tests are reviewed: (1) acceptance of the test title as an accurate and complete description of the variable being measured (failure to examine the manual and the items carefully to know the specific aspects to be tested can result in misuse through selection of an inappropriate test for a particular purpose or…

The utility of brief exposure to a mental focusing aid, the Three-Fingers Technique (TFT), in reducing test anxiety was studied for 15 college students. One week before their final examination, the students were given a 15-minute classroom introduction to the TFT, part of the Silva Mental Training Method (1983). After the introduction to this…

This study criticizes current approaches to language test development for their restrictive views of how language should be measured. Language tests are based either on an input component (what goes into a test) or an output component (how should the test be measured). An integration of both components on language tests is advocated. The…

The construction of parallel tests from item response theory (IRT) based item banks is discussed. Tests are considered parallel whenever their information functions are identical. After the methods for constructing parallel tests are considered, the computational complexity of 0-1 linear programming and the heuristic procedure applied are…

Efforts to expand the generic language proficiency guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) began when developers realized that the ACTFL guidelines were too Eurocentric; the guidelines included grammatical categories specific to Western European languages and…

While many researchers have examined the effects of test anxiety on examination completion time and performance, most have not controlled for ability in their studies. In this study, it was hypothesized that, when ability was controlled, college students high in state anxiety would take significantly longer to complete an examination and would…

Two types of classification error are possible in competency tests: erroneous classification of an individual as a "master" of the subject (Type II error), and erroneous classification of a master as a "nonmaster" of the subject (Type I). If steps are taken to minimize Type II errors, an artificially high number of true masters…

Explored are two theoretical approaches that attempt to cope with omitted responses, that is, when an examinee omits (fails to respond to) an item and therefore the item response formula cannot be used. Preliminary considerations are discussed, and it is shown that a conveniently simple application of equivalent items leads to internal…

Two samples of Israeli Arab village children were tested on an Arabic translation of the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence; the subtest profiles of these samples were compared to a relevant subsample of the Israeli Jewish normative national sample. (Author/JM)

Four new experimental scales of motivation were constructed by applying a modified iterative factor analytic method to item responses of 346 subjects. The scales-tentatively identified as intrinsic motivation, self-enhancement, person orientation, and goal deficiency-should have special relevance to the educational and counseling objectives of the…

The assumption is made that opportunity means a chance to participate, if one chooses, in the intellectual, economic and personal rewards available most readily through mastering the skills, such as literacy and numeracy, that are important in at least one of the viable cultures that make up the society. Historically, the members of some groups,…

The test performance of students who took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) only once as juniors was contrasted with students who took the test as juniors and again as seniors. Estimates of expected test performance on a common initial administration in the junior year were derived from separate equating sections and background variables.…