Preparing tests in specialized institutions is based on scientific and practical rules that precede, accompany and follow each question, until it becomes part of a test. The following is a summary of the basic stages that the center goes through in preparing the tests.

Initialization

Every year, the Center attracts, from various regions of the Kingdom, a number of people qualified in the areas of the Center’s tests, and those working in the field of university and public education, and holds periodic workshops for them that address the theoretical and practical aspects of each test:

1- Theoretical aspects include:

The concepts on which the test is based.

Its public and private goals.

The general components of its construction, and the characteristics of its parts and sections.

The theoretical and technical foundations for formulating his questions.

2- Practical training is based on:

Presentation and discussion of types of questions; This is to deepen theoretical concepts and technical specifications.

Group training on writing questions representing the various sections of the test.

Writing questions individually (outside the workshop) so that they can be presented and discussed in private sessions.

Some people participate in the workshops repeatedly every year, and new elements are added to them. This is in an effort to accumulate and spread experiences.

Writing

Each writer is assigned to develop questions according to his specialty.

In order to ensure confidentiality; Each writer is given a number of his own, to which information about him is linked, such as: his specialty, academic degree, and scientific and practical experiences. This number remains with the writer throughout his dealings with the center.

Each question is given its own number. It becomes the fixed identity of the question in the Question Data Bank, regardless of whether it is later used within tests or not.

Arbitration

The questions are judged by committees, each of which consists of three members:

Specialist in the cognitive field of testing.

Specialized in measurement.

Experienced member.

Each individual question is subject to one of three rulings by the committee:

Accept it as it is.

Accepted after modification by the committee; If the terms and conditions of amendment apply to him.

Ruling it invalid. The committee also, according to a specific questionnaire, judges each question from several aspects, such as: its nature, its estimated level of difficulty, its consistency with the test’s guaranteed controls, its lack of bias, its degree of quality, the nature of the modifications made to it and their extent (minor, moderate, radical) and justifications. If he refuses. All of this information is stored in the computer linked to the number for each question.

Insertion

Questions are entered into the computer according to the arbitration committees’ formulas (i.e. what they reached in terms of amending the question or accepting it as is). This excludes questions that the committees have ruled to be invalid and cannot be repaired.

Review

All questions (the computer version) were reviewed again by four reviewers with expertise in the field and experience in measurement. To make sure:

Accurate implementation of arbitration committee amendments.

Accuracy of engineering and graphic drawings and accuracy of numbers.

Safety from typographical, linguistic and spelling errors.

Checking, once again, the consistency of the questions with the test controls.

Answering questions (creating an answer key).

Initial filtering of questions that seem difficult in terms of structure or answer, or in that the answer to them exceeds the time available for testing.

The questions are asked within one of the actual tests that have undergone all the previous stages (without the applicants knowing which questions are experimental and which are actual). These questions are corrected along with the actual test questions, but they are not included in calculating the student’s result.

Analysis

The questions are analyzed statistically; In preparation for including the valid ones into the actual test question base, while the invalid ones are completely excluded or corrected, and then tried again.

Genesis

The test is formed in its final form by randomly selecting from among the tested questions deposited in the question bank, but within the approved parts of the test and its branches, in a way that ensures the appropriate representation of all dimensions of the test.

Output

At this stage, the test is produced and the final image is reviewed. Different versions of the test form are prepared to accommodate the largest number of experimental questions and to avoid the student looking at the paper of his colleague next to him. The test is then printed in booklets that include general and specific instructions for each part and section.

Equation models

The Center has adopted a policy of multiple models, and has been keen to avoid their disparity in terms of difficulty, distinction, and nature of content. This is done by equating them during the formation of the test: the questions in the various models are balanced so that the difficulty and discrimination of the questions are very close, and within scientifically approved values, and the models are also equivalent in terms of information related to the test’s ability to show differences between applicants. Although it is scientifically proven that balancing models during test preparation is more accurate (if taken care of) than balancing them after the test is completed; The center also equates the models (dimensionally), that is, after the test. This is to ensure the equality of scores in the various models.