CBT Test Design and Blueprinting 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of a test blueprint in CBT development?
- To schedule test delivery dates
- To map content domains to item counts and cognitive levels (Correct answer)
- To define the software platform requirements
- To assign proctoring responsibilities
Correct answer: To map content domains to item counts and cognitive levels
A test blueprint specifies which content domains are covered, how many items come from each, and what cognitive levels are assessed.
Question 2: Which term describes the process of identifying the knowledge, skills, and abilities a test should measure?
- Job task analysis (Correct answer)
- Psychometric scaling
- Item banking
- Standard setting
Correct answer: Job task analysis
A job task analysis (JTA) identifies the KSAs required for a role and forms the foundation for test content specifications.
Question 3: In a test blueprint, 'cognitive level' most commonly refers to which taxonomy?
- Marzano's taxonomy
- Bloom's taxonomy (Correct answer)
- Webb's Depth of Knowledge
- Gagné's conditions of learning
Correct answer: Bloom's taxonomy
Bloom's taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) is the most widely used framework for categorizing cognitive levels in test blueprints.
Question 4: A test that samples items randomly from all blueprint domains without regard to proportion is violating which principle?
- Content validity (Correct answer)
- Criterion validity
- Construct reliability
- Predictive fairness
Correct answer: Content validity
Content validity requires that item proportions match the blueprint's domain weights, ensuring the test represents the full content area.
Question 5: When a CBT blueprint specifies 'operational' vs. 'pretest' items, what distinguishes pretest items?
- They are harder and count double
- They are unscored and used to gather statistics for future use (Correct answer)
- They appear only at the beginning of the exam
- They are visible to candidates before the test
Correct answer: They are unscored and used to gather statistics for future use
Pretest (pilot) items are embedded in the test but do not count toward the candidate's score; they are being evaluated for future operational use.
Question 6: Which blueprint characteristic ensures that a CBT can produce multiple equivalent forms?
- Item difficulty targeting
- Parallel form specifications (Correct answer)
- Adaptive branching rules
- Passage dependency mapping
Correct answer: Parallel form specifications
Parallel form specifications define the statistical and content constraints that each form must meet so that different versions of the test are interchangeable.
Question 7: A 'testlet' in CBT design refers to:
- A very short 5-minute exam
- A set of items sharing a common stimulus such as a scenario or passage (Correct answer)
- A single item type used throughout the test
- An optional bonus section
Correct answer: A set of items sharing a common stimulus such as a scenario or passage
A testlet is a cluster of items linked to one stimulus (e.g., a case study), which can introduce local item dependence that must be accounted for in scoring.
CBT Test Design and Blueprinting 2
What is the primary purpose of a test blueprint in CBT development?