Test Topics
Glossary
Table of specifications - The table of specifications, also known as the test blueprint, provides the structure for the test forms that will be developed. A typical table of specifications includes a listing of the content areas important to be included on the test, along with the cognitive levels that test items are intended to target.
Test administration - This refers to the process followed to give exams to examinees, typically under standardized procedures and operational conditions.
Test assembly - This refers to the process used to construct test forms. It includes the selection of items from an item bank according to a set of statistical and content criteria. It may also involve the formatting, layout, and ordering of the items on the test, as well as the inclusion of the test directions.
Test blueprint - The test blueprint, also known as the table of specifications, provides the structure for the test forms that will be developed. A typical test blueprint includes a listing of the content areas to be included on the test, along with the cognitive levels that test items are intended to target.
Test description - This is the aspect of an exam program's test specifications which is used as a framework for designing the test. Typically, this description may include such information as the purpose of the test, the intended test audience, and other background information.
Test development - This refers to the orderly process followed in the design, development, and maintenance of an exam program. The steps followed may begin with establishing the purpose of the test, conducting a job analysis, and creating a set of test specifications. For ongoing exam programs, this will also include steps such as routine item writing and review efforts, the assembly of new test forms, regular standard setting meetings, as well as test administration and scoring activities.
Test purpose - This refers to the intended goals and uses of the results of the test. The test purpose of an exam program has many, far-reaching implications for the design, development, and maintenance of the test.
Test-retest reliability - Test-retest reliability provides an estimate of the extent to which a test is able to provide consistent, stable test scores across time.
Test security - This term is used to refer both to a set of procedures designed to prevent problems such as cheating, as well as to the need for these procedures. For a given exam program, methods to address test security may span test development, examinee registration, test administration, and post-administration statistical analyses.