Computer adaptive testing provides a number of benefits over conventional, linear testing. This article provides more information on two of the main upsides:
Greater accuracy
Computer adaptive assessments, such as PAT Maths Adaptive and PAT Reading Adaptive, use students’ responses to actively determine the content as they progress through the test, resulting in personalised pathways. The result is a more engaging testing experience that produces a highly detailed picture of achievement, enabling you to more precisely diagnose student needs and target teaching where it is needed most.
For an assessment to produce valuable information about students’ abilities, it needs to be able to demonstrate what students can do and understand, as well as what they cannot yet do and understand.
When a student responds correctly to approximately 50% of questions, the test is well targeted and provides the maximum information about the skills a student is demonstrating, and those she or he is still developing.
In conventional, linear, assessments, all students in a group respond to a test form containing the same items. Differences in students’ abilities mean that those shared items are likely to be suitably challenging for some students, but too easy or too difficult for others.
Tests that are too easy or too difficult may reduce student engagement and fail to identify what students can do, or to highlight areas of need. For example, if a student responds correctly to all of their test items, their achievement estimate - expressed as a scale score - is likely to be inflated.
Reduced administrative work
There is no need to choose a test level, or form, when using PAT Adaptive. Students' entry testlets – the first block of items the student sees – are automatically assigned according to their estimated abilities. If a student previously completed a PAT test in the same learning area within the preceding two years, that scale score is used to determine a suitably difficult starting point. Alternatively, their entry point is assigned according to their year level, with the rest of the test further adapting to their actual abilities.