Based on a paper delivered at the Canadian Linguistics Association Congress held in Toronto, Canada, June 10-13, 1969. (DS)

This review, with profiles of 51 available writing/language usage tests from most major test publishing companies, provides technical information on the tests, the evolution of test characteristics, the tests' role as writing samples, and issues in psychometric quality. Published objective writing tests are changing in important and positive ways.…

Grade A undergraduate psychology students used different test-taking strategies on a multiple-choice exam than did C or F students. In general, the strategies of the best students were characterized by a more thorough consideration of the alternative answers for each question. (RM)

To study sex differences in test performance, the performance of males and females on 16 General Certificate of Education exams was analyzed in England. Results show that males perform better on objective tests than females. (Author/JJD)

Reasonable and practical solutions to two major problems confronting the developer of any test of educational achievement (what to measure and how to measure it) are proposed, defended, and defined. (Author/PN)

Suggests that direct and indirect measures of writing ability tend to tap similar skills. Concludes that educational decisions about competence in writing can be be made by using a combination of direct and indirect means. (FL)

In a Monte Carlo simulation, a methodology was developed to investigate the existence of radex properties among objective test items. In an experiment with items covering four categories of Bloom's cognitive domain taxonomy, the items did not have the factorial properties of a radex with four levels of complexity. (Author/BW)

Examines objectivity as a criterion for excellency in language tests through a critical presentation of the characteristics of objective tests. This examination leads to a discussion of what the best approach to testing language might be, endorsing a combination of integrative and objective techniques. (Author/MES)

We examined the correlation between sex and cognitive outcomes of a national sample of students at four-year institutions. Outcomes data included objective tests and self-reported gains. In the presence of controls for a wide variety of potentially confounding variables, significant differences were found between women and men in outcomes and in…

A taxonomy of 43 rules for writing multiple-choice test items is presented, based on a consensus of 46 textbooks. These guidelines are presented as complete and authoritative, with solid consensus apparent for 33 of the rules. Four rules lack consensus, and 5 rules were cited fewer than 10 times. (SLD)

Research and practice in detecting and controlling for cheating on objective tests are reviewed and a small survey of attitudes and practices is reported. Potential of two computer programs to detect error similarities and use of multiple answer-sheet forms to control cheating are discussed. Teacher cheating is also addressed. (Author/MSE)

A statistical test of the knowledge or random guessing model is presented. A version of the model is introduced in which it is assumed that alternatives can be ordered according to a Guttman scale. Three examples illustrate its application to data from a total of 590 college students. (Author/SLD)

Two studies compared performance on conditional and trial-unique delayed identity matching-to-sample procedures with five subjects having moderate to severe mental retardation and four subjects with mild mental retardation. Across the studies, six of nine subjects showed lower delayed-matching accuracy when fewer rather than more stimuli were…

Some of the pitfalls in the construction of multiple choice tests are discussed and examples of invalid questions given. (RM)

Based on the classic test-wiseness principles of J. Millman, C. H. Bishop, and R. Ebel, the STAR strategy streamlines the taking of timed tests. Before explaining the strategy to students, the instructor can convince students of the advantages of the strategy by administering a short test to determine students' test-wiseness. The STAR strategy…