Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is the test delivery method of the 21st century. Tests are designed to be intelligent and interactive, adapting themselves to each examinee. Doing so provides a number of advantages, including:

• much shorter tests (saving time and money)
• greater accuracy
• enhanced test security
• a better experience for examinees.

CAT used to be feasible only for very large testing programs, but ASC's expertise and tools make it possible for a testing program with as few as several hundred examinees per year. Contact us to see how we can help your assessments become more powerful, precise, and efficient. We can help you:

• Assess the feasibility of developing CAT from current conventional tests
• Evaluate efficient adaptive test designs for your assessment
• Deliver your CATs with our FastTEST engine, in an online or LAN environment
• Identify test development processes suitable for adaptive test designs
• Develop CAT assessments, including item writing.

What do I need to build a CAT?
While the advantages of CAT are universally recognized, it is not feasible for every situation. Most notably, it is not feasible for individual classroom assessments. Here are some of the basic requirements for CAT:

1. Items (questions) that can be scored objectively correct/incorrect
2. Resources to develop large banks of items, at least 3 times your intended test length
3. At least 200-500 examinees to serve as a pilot sample for each test (depends on IRT model)
4. Expertise from a PhD psychometrician to perform complex item response theory (IRT) analysis and appropriate CAT research
5. Item banking system capable of storing IRT parameters and designing CATs ( FastTEST Web)
6. Test delivery system capable of fully adaptive testing based on IRT ( FastTEST Web)

ASC's expertise lies in the latter three components; a testing organization must provide the first three.

ASC's President and chief psychometrician is David J. Weiss, Ph.D., generally regarded as the father of CAT. Dr. Weiss is a Professor at the University of Minnesota, where he directed the research program that originally developed the CAT methodology for the US Department of Defense, and maintains the CAT Central resource website. Click here learn more about CAT and its advantages, and view a video of Dr. Weiss speaking about CAT. Visit our research page or links page for additional resources.