PC Score Reporting and Interpretation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A stanine score of 5 indicates that a test-taker performed:
- Below average relative to the norm group
- In the average range relative to the norm group (Correct answer)
- Above average relative to the norm group
- At exactly the 50th percentile
Correct answer: In the average range relative to the norm group
Stanines range from 1 to 9, with stanine 5 representing the average band (spanning the 40th to 60th percentile of the norm group).
Question 2: What distinguishes norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced interpretation?
- Norm-referenced interpretation compares a score to a fixed standard; criterion-referenced compares to a peer group
- Norm-referenced interpretation compares a score to a peer group; criterion-referenced compares to a defined performance standard (Correct answer)
- Norm-referenced interpretation is used only for cognitive tests; criterion-referenced is used for personality tests
- Norm-referenced interpretation reports raw scores; criterion-referenced reports scale scores
Correct answer: Norm-referenced interpretation compares a score to a peer group; criterion-referenced compares to a defined performance standard
Norm-referenced interpretation locates an individual relative to others in a reference group, while criterion-referenced interpretation evaluates performance against a defined mastery standard.
Question 3: A licensing board sets a cut score of 70 on a 100-item exam. What is the primary psychometric consideration when establishing this cut score?
- Ensuring the cut score equals the norm group mean
- Balancing false positive and false negative classification errors (Correct answer)
- Setting the cut score at the highest feasible passing rate
- Aligning the cut score with raw score distributions
Correct answer: Balancing false positive and false negative classification errors
Cut score setting requires careful balancing of false positives (unqualified candidates passing) and false negatives (qualified candidates failing) based on the consequences of each error type.
Question 4: What does a T-score of 70 indicate in a standardized psychological assessment?
- The examinee scored at the 70th percentile
- The examinee's score is two standard deviations above the mean (Correct answer)
- The examinee answered 70% of items correctly
- The examinee's score is one standard deviation below the mean
Correct answer: The examinee's score is two standard deviations above the mean
T-scores have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, so a T-score of 70 is exactly two standard deviations above the mean.
Question 5: A grade equivalent score of 6.4 on a reading test for a 4th grader most accurately means:
- The student reads at the level of a 6th grader in the 4th month
- The student should be placed in 6th grade
- The student's raw score equals the average raw score of 6th graders in the 4th month (Correct answer)
- The student has mastered 64% of the 6th grade curriculum
Correct answer: The student's raw score equals the average raw score of 6th graders in the 4th month
A grade equivalent score indicates that a student's raw score equals the median raw score obtained by students in a norm group at that grade and month level, not that the student is functioning at that grade level.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes a scaled score in large-scale assessments?
- A score that ranks examinees from highest to lowest
- A transformed score that allows comparison across different test forms of equal difficulty (Correct answer)
- A score based solely on item difficulty estimates
- A score equivalent to the number of correct responses
Correct answer: A transformed score that allows comparison across different test forms of equal difficulty
Scaled scores are placed on a common scale through equating procedures, enabling valid score comparisons across different test administrations or forms.
Question 7: When interpreting scores from a test with low reliability, a practitioner should:
- Report the score as a precise point estimate with high confidence
- Widen the confidence interval to account for greater measurement error (Correct answer)
- Ignore the reliability coefficient if the sample size is large
- Convert the score to percentiles to eliminate reliability concerns
Correct answer: Widen the confidence interval to account for greater measurement error
Lower reliability means greater measurement error (larger SEM), which requires wider confidence intervals to accurately reflect the imprecision of the observed score.
PC Score Reporting and Interpretation 2
A stanine score of 5 indicates that a test-taker performed: