What are the stages in constructing a new test? Discuss briefly

There are major six stages to constructing a new test. The major stages briefly details in the below-

Defining the test;
Defining the test consist of delimiting its scope and purpose, which must be known before the developer can proceed to test constriction.

Kaufman and Kaufman 1983, provide a good model of the test definition process. In proposing the Kaufman assessment battery for children, they listed six primary goals which define the purpose of the test and distinguish it from existing measures;
 Measure intelligence from a strong theoretical and research basis.
 Separate acquired factual knowledge from the ability to solve unfamiliar problems.
 Yield score that translate to educational intervention.
 Include novel tasks.
 Be easy to administer and objective to score
 Be sensitive to the diverse needs of preschool, minority group and exceptional children.


Selection a Scaling method;
Selection a scaling method is process of setting the rules by which numbers are assigned to responses on a test.
There are so many distinctive scaling methods available to psychometricians. However, reviewing selecting scaling methods, we need to introduce a related concept, Levels of Measurement, for better understanding the differences between scaling methods.

Level of Measurement
According to Stevens 1946, all number derived from measurement instruments of any kind can be placed into one of our hierarchical categories; nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio.

Expert Ranking
Method of Equal-Appearing Intervals
Method of Absolute Scaling
Likert Scale
Guttman Scale
Method of Empirical Keying

Constructing the items
Constructing the items is as much art as science and it is here that the creativity of the test developer may be required. The item writer is confronted with a profusion of initial questions;
 Should item content be homogeneous or varied
 What range of difficulty should the items cover
 How many initial items should be constructed
 Which cognitive process and item domains should be tapped
 What kind of test item should be used




Testing the items
Once a preliminary version of the test is available, the developer usually administers it to a modest-sized sample of subjects in order to collect initial data about test-item characteristics.
Testing the items entails a variety of statistical procedures referred to collectively as item analysis. The purpose of item analysis is to determine which items should be retained, which revised and which thrown out. In conducting a thorough item analysis, the test developer might make use of;
 Item Difficulty Index
 Item Reliability Index
 Item Validity Index
 Item characteristics Curves
 Item Discrimination Index

Revising the Test
Based on item analysis and other sources of information, the test is ten revised. If the revisions are substantial, new items and additional pre-testing with new subjects may be required. Thus, test constructing involves a feedback loop whereby second, third and fourth drafts of an instrument might be produced.

There are three in revising the test-
 Cross-Validation;
 Validity Shrinkage
 Feedback from Examinees

Publishing the test
The test developer must oversee the production of the testing materials, publish a technical manual, and produce a user’s manual.
Production of testing manual;
Testing materials must be user friendly if they are to receive wide acceptance by psychologists and educators. Thus a first guideline for test production is that the physical packaging of test material must allow for quick and smooth administration.
Technical manual and user’s manual
Technical data about a new instrument are usually summarized with appropriate reference in a technical manual. Here the prospective user can find information about item analysis, cross validation studies, scales reliabilities etc.