We are often asked why it takes so long to release the grades for the examination. The truth is that there is much more to “grading the exam” than just marking the right or wrong answers. Most of what takes so long is done to offer additional levels of fairness to the candidates.
After the right and wrong answers are scored mechanically for each answer sheet, the multiple-choice exams are put through rigorous statistical analyses to ascertain each question’s performance. Granted, some of the questions you answer are not scored; we’re testing them for future exams. They do not count toward your score. So we filter those out and score the remaining questions.
Analyzing each candidate’s performance on each question against everyone else’s performance on each question takes some time. We do this to identify if there are questions that might not have worked in the way they were intended to. For instance, if every candidate misses question 65, that tells us that question 65 isn’t a good question. So we don’t score that question. We actually remove that question from our pool of questions and send it back for more work and more pre-testing on future exams before we use it again. Sometimes, we throw it out completely.
Analyzing data also helps us identify potential testing irregularities (commonly known as “cheating”). For instance, if every person in a certain testing center gets the same exact answers to every question, that’s a statistical improbability, so we have to go back and review that center.
Then we go back to “equate” each section against the “anchor” test to ensure it is equivalent in its level of difficulty. That’s why we can’t tell you exactly how many questions you need to get right in order to pass. We have all these checks and balances to give you every opportunity to pass the test.
Want to know more about the content of Section 1 and 2? Click here. You'll be amazed at what it takes just to get a question onto a test. Each question has to meet a whole checklist of standards just to get pre-tested. See the whole process here.
Next up: Grading the Practicum Exams
