Recent information from established testing programs was used to investigate the nature and limitations of essay and multiple-choice tests of writing ability, the statistical relationship of these types of tests, the performance of population subgroups on each, the possible need of different disciplines for different tests of composition skill,…

Simple sum procedure of the conditional PDF approach (plausiblity of distractor function) combined with the normal approach method was applied for estimating the plausibility functions of the distractors of the Level II vocabulary subtest items of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. In so doing, the normal ogive model was adopted for the correct…

Online practice tests and quizzes are commonly available to higher education students. The extent of student use of such study tools and the relationship of use to achievement, however, have not been fully investigated. One hundred twelve college students were encouraged to use optional online quizzes in preparation for proctored examinations.…

Patterns of cautiousness in a prose learning task were examined in three age groups of adults representing three levels of educational experience. Types of instruction, order of material presentation, sex, and educational experience level were varied for all groups of the 90 adults participating in the study. The main findings were as follows: (1)…

It is suggested that most standardized science tests do not adequately assess the majority of concepts taught as part of the very diversified middle school science curriculum. The 50-item Life Science Test constructed by Portland Public Schools, Maine, herein presented, aims to resolve this inadequacy. The 40-minute multiple choice test…

Two methods of interactive, computer-assisted testing methods for multiple-choice items were compared with each other and with conventional multiple-choice tests. The interactive testing methods compared were tailored testing and the respond-until-correct (RUC) item response method. In tailored testing, examinee ability is successively estimated…

This item bank was compiled by the Australian Council for Educational research (ACER) to help teachers at the secondary school level construct objective tests in arithmetic and algebra. The multiple-choice items were written by teachers who attended ACER writing workshops. The questions are classified according to their subject content and the…

To test the effect of clinically relevant multiple-choice item content on the validity of statistical discriminations of physicians' clinical competence, data were collected from a field test of the Emergency Medicine Examination, test items for the certification of specialists in emergency medicine. Two 91-item multiple-choice subscales were…

An earlier study was extended and replicated to examine the feasibility of generating multiple-choice test questions by transforming sentences from prose instructional material. In the first study, a computer-based algorithm was used to analyze prose subject matter and to identify high-information words. Sentences containing selected words were…

A specially designed answer format was used for three tests in a college level agriculture class of 19 students to record responses to three things about each item: (1) the student's choice of the best answer; (2) the degree of certainty with which the answer was chosen; and (3) all the answer choices which the student was certain were incorrect.…

The complexity of defining accurate passing scores with a minimum classification error when evaluating criterion-referenced, multiple-choice tests has been a major problem for classroom teachers. Therefore, a practical procedure in which the instructor determines the plausibility of each item option for the minimally acceptable examinee is…

Multiple-choice items were used to measure knowledge of drug abuse among four distinct groups of college students in the Los Angeles area. No difference in knowledge was found about five aspects of drug abuse measured by subscales of the instrument. These findings suggest that knowledge about drugs is remarkably uniform, although the students…

Intended to help institutions place their entering students in regular freshman English composition courses, the Test of Standard Written English (TSWF) is most useful to colleges that also offer alternate courses designed to improve students' understanding of the material explored by the test. The Test of Standard Written English assesses…

These 21 self-assessment units are intended to accompany the seven teaching manuals in the series "New Approaches to Bilingual, Bicultural Education." The units consist of three self-administered evaluation instruments for each manual. They are designed both as a review and as a means of emphasizing the important concepts found in the…

This mastery test is designed to accompany unit 4 of the second-semester 12th-grade course, "Comparing Political Experiences." The 25-item multiple-choice test was developed by the National Evaluation Systems, Inc. in conjunction with the project directors to determine whether the unit objectives have been achieved. The test measures…