What is Computer Adaptive Testing?
CAT is a very efficient and intelligent technique of assessing the competence of a candidate in a particular test. As against traditional computerized test that presents the same number of questions to each test taker irrespective of the person’s performance in the test, CAT environment provides the difficulty level and number of questions considering their performance in the test.
The objective of adaptive testing is to determine the appropriate level of expertise of a candidate in a particular subject. Or in other words, the test is able to discover the level, on a scale of easy to difficult, at which the person taking it begins to find the questions challenging. CAT can derive a score for that level in an effective way.
A CAT tailors itself to the ability of the test taker. You can compare it with an interview process, where the toughness of an interviewer's question increases as the candidate shows signs of high ability. After taking into account how each person taking the same CAT answered previous questions, the test adjusts such that the low-ability test taker gets a different set of questions than the high-ability test taker.
The evaluation of a person’s competence is not based on the absolute number of correct responses but on the level of difficulty of the questions answered correctly.
What are the benefits of Computer Adaptive Testing?
Efficiency
As compared to the traditional testing, CAT technology is far more efficient as it is able to assess candidates in lesser time, by asking them less number of questions. The questions that do not contribute or provide no help in determining the person’s score to the assessment are never asked.
Accuracy and Reliability
CAT technology offers more accurate results as candidates are graded not just on the basis of number of correct answers, but also on the difficulty levels of the questions answered.
Secure Testing
CAT technology improves test security in many ways. The questions are exposed at a much-reduced rate than traditional tests, in turn allowing the items to be effective for longer duration. Secondly, since it is not obvious which set of questions a person will receive, preparing for such tests takes much more than just focusing on individual items. Finally, memorizing the test questions is never of help to a candidate, because they may not reach to that level of questions that are most effective for determining a person’s ability to pass the test.
Equivalently challenging exams
CAT provides a similar psychological test-taking experience and environment for everyone. Each test taker answers questions that are personally challenging without being too hard or too easy. The candidate can not get bored answering many easy questions or frustrated by too many hard questions.
Reduced Test Cost
Since a single test caters to all levels of candidates from beginner to expert, the test maintenance and delivery cost is highly reduced.
Uniform Scoring
Using a single test for a particular technology for all levels also ensures that the scoring is uniform across different candidates.
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