Developing test items for the National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT) requires independent expert review and pilot testing with students. This system makes it possible to virtually eliminate critical errors and ensure the exam’s difficulty is appropriately balanced.
Tetyana Vakulenko, director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA), spoke about this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
Key points:
- The tests are written by certified test developers.
- Each question is reviewed by two independent experts.
- The questions are tested on actual students (pilot testing) before being included in the exam.
- The difficulty of each question is determined using psychometric analysis.
- Systematic errors in the NMT are virtually impossible, although isolated typographical errors may occur.
Who writes the tasks
According to Vakulenko, the agency does not simply create tests on its own but commissions them from certified authors. These are specialists who have undergone special training in test development and have a thorough knowledge of the school curriculum. Writing a test item is just the beginning. Each test goes through a “filter” of two independent experts who check:
- compliance with the curriculum;
- correctness of wording;
- absence of factual errors.
Testing on students: how difficulty is determined
Before the questions are added to the exam system, they undergo a pilot testing phase. They are solved by selected students.
