However mystifying and unpronounceable psychometrics seems, it’s just a way to refer to the processes that make your tests fair, sound, interpretable, and most of all defensible.

To gain a better understanding for our clients, we specialize in demystifying the processes so that clients can trust that their candidates are being evaluated fairly, and that their examination program is defensible.

Exam Blueprinting and Test Assembly

Hand-assembling a test to match a test blueprint is difficult work. Clients may succeed in creating a test that has many of the right characteristics, but this work is often at the expense of other aspects of their blueprint. For example, a client might represent the various content areas in the right proportions, but have too many ‘straight recall’ items. Or they might have too many ‘C’s as correct answers.

To maximize efforts on all fronts, we use sophisticated test assembly software to pull the right items from your item bank in order to fulfill a test blueprint precisely and fairly, ensuring that formative and summative assessments are perfect. The completed test is instantly available for clients to validate, not create. Our clients can even use our tools to swap out particular items, allowing you to perfect the assessment.

Instructor-led Psychometric Testing 101

A comprehensive psychometric analysis of the performance of tests and the items that comprise them is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of any assessment program, as well as to the fair evaluation ofcandidates. As one of Yardstick’s core services, this analysis is focused not only on providing an organization with the most pertinent statistical indices, but also gives them specific and easily interpretable information about the strengths and weaknesses of your tests and items relative to their intended goals.

Creating High Quality Examinations

Our clients are often members of an organization that needs a new certification exam, or needs to revise an existing one. These guys know what it takes to be a competent and successful professional, but are unsure how to build an exam to find out what their candidates know? We help clients find out! First, we help you to clarify the purpose of an exam and to take an inventory of the abilities, skills, and knowledge that clients want their candidates to have mastered. Then we help turn that inventory into a test blueprint for an exam, a test blueprint that has clear specifications for the numbers and types of items, the relative emphasis of the different content areas, the cognitive complexity of those items, and a plan for how to author, assemble, and analyze the test’s performance.

Standard Setting

Distinguishing between competent and not yet competent candidates is the rationale of testing programs in the licensure / certification space. Standard Setting is the process by which a passing score on an exam is established and validated. We can facilitate this process for you, helping your experts efficiently and effectively identify a legally defensible passing score for your exam. In addition, we can conduct this process either in person or on the web with your subject matter experts participating from around the country, or the world.

Item and Exam Statistical Analysis

A comprehensive analysis of the performance of your tests and the items that comprise them is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of your assessment program, as well as to the fair evaluation of your candidates. As one of Yardstick’s core services, this analysis is focused not only on providing your organization with the most pertinent statistical indices, but also gives you specific and easily interpretable information about the strengths and weaknesses of your tests and items relative to their intended goals.

All of these steps work to ensure that certification and licensure programs are sound and defensible. There is nothing more important than the integrity of items and teh professionalism of our clients’ organizations.

Learn More

Register today for our FREE Psychometrics WEBinar series and learn all about the Assessment Life Cycle.

To learn more about our services and understanding how Yardstick helps organizations solidify their testing programs, visit the Professional Services section of our website.