Principles of Test

Construction

How does the College Board assess

you?you?

Okay, first of all…

Aptitude TestsTests designed to predict a person’s future performance (aptitude is the capacity to learn)

Achievement TestsTests designed to assess what a person has learned

Believe it or not,AP, SATII, SATI, ACT, TOEFL are all…

1) Standardized2) Reliable 3) Valid

StandardizationDefining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested “standardization group”

Normal curveThe symmetrical bell-shaped curve

Reliability Comparing your test scores to those of the standardizing group still won’t tell us much about you unless the test has reliability.

Reliability Reliability The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.

ValidityHigh reliability does not ensure a test’s validity.

ValidityValidity The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Other tests are Other tests are evaluated in terms of evaluated in terms of how well they agree with how well they agree with some some criterioncriterion—an —an independent measure of independent measure of what the test aims to what the test aims to assess. For some tests, assess. For some tests, the criterion is the criterion is future future performanceperformance..

For example, aptitude tests must have predictive validity, which means they predict future achievement.

Let’s reinforce!

Quiz Time

Wow, it’s so easy.

Psychological tests must be…

1) ___________________2) ___________________3) ___________________

Wow, it’s so easy.

Psychological tests must be…

1) standardized2) reliable3) valid

Wow, it’s so easy.

If you use an inaccurate tape measure to measure people’s heights, your height report would have a high_____________ but a low___________.

Wow, it’s so easy.

If you use an inaccurate tape measure to measure people’s heights, your height report would have a high reliability (consistency) but a low validity (accuracy).

What do we call this?

A normal curve(or normal distribution)

Before we finish,

Are general aptitude tests (SATs) as predictive as they are reliable?

The answer is

””NO”.NO”.