Exams built on evidence, not habit
Psychometricians and your experts build an exam you can explain.
When nobody can explain the cut
A candidate fails by two points and asks why 70 is the passing score. The honest answer is that it always has been. A standard setting study replaces that answer with a documented method and a panel of practitioners.
What the studies give you
Content tied to practice
Blueprint weights follow a survey of practitioners.
Items reviewed twice
Checked for accuracy, then for bias and access.
A cut score explained
Set by a panel with a named method, every rating kept.
Forms held equal
Equating means no form is easier to pass.
Studies sized to the question
Test Health Check
Item statistics, reliability and an accessibility review of an exam you already run, in a written report.
Job task analysis
Panel workshops, a task survey of practitioners and a weighted blueprint for your exam.
Item writing workshop
Your experts trained, then writing and reviewing items to the blueprint with a facilitator.
Standard setting study
A modified Angoff or Bookmark study, explained to panelists, with a report for your board.
What every study includes
A lead psychometrician
A doctorate or master’s in measurement, leading the study from kickoff to final report.
Your experts, briefed
Subject matter experts from your field, trained on the method before they write or rate.
Bias and accessibility review
Every new item checked for language, culture and access by reviewers other than its writer.
Item analysis
Difficulty, and discrimination (how well an item separates stronger from weaker candidates), per item.
Form equating
Scores on a new form placed on the same scale as earlier forms, with the method recorded.
Technical report
The written record of how the exam was built and performs, for your board and any accreditor.
Example: a cosmetology board’s written exam
A state cosmetology board gives a 100-item written exam to about 2,200 candidates a year, with a passing score nobody can trace. A Test Health Check flags 14 weak items in ten business days. A one-day standard setting study with ten licensed cosmetologists then sets the cut score, and the technical report reaches the board before its spring meeting.
Indicative price
Indicative, from$1,900
Per exam for a Test Health Check; larger studies are quoted from the price table. Every proposal is fixed-fee and itemized.
Questions about exam development
Where should we start if our exam already runs?
Start with a Test Health Check. We review one exam’s item statistics, reliability (how consistently it measures) and accessibility, and return a written report in ten business days, from $1,900. The report says which items to fix, whether the passing score needs a study and what to do first.
What is a job task analysis?
A job task analysis is a study of what people in a role actually do. A panel of experts drafts the tasks and knowledge, then a survey asks a wider group of practitioners how often they perform each task and how much it matters. The results set the weights in your blueprint.
How do you set a cut score?
We set the cut score, or passing score, with a panel of qualified practitioners and a documented method, most often a modified Angoff, where panelists judge how a just-qualified candidate would do on each item. Your board makes the final decision, informed by the panel’s ratings, the likely pass rate and our report.
Do you write the exam questions for us?
No. Your subject matter experts write the items, because the content must come from your field. Our item writing facilitators train them, run the workshop and review drafts for clarity, bias and accessibility. If you draft items with AI, every draft goes through the same expert review, and its origin is logged on the item.
What goes in a technical report?
A technical report documents how the exam was built and how it performs: the purpose of the scores, the job analysis and blueprint, item writing and review, the standard setting study, reliability, equating and item statistics. It is written for your board and any accreditor who asks, in language a non-specialist can follow.
Can you work with an exam that is not on your platform?
Yes. Studies work from any system that exports candidate responses as CSV or QTI. We need responses to each item, not only total scores, to calculate item statistics. Many health checks start this way, and the program decides afterward whether to move the exam onto Exampit.
Start with a health check
Tell us about your teams and we will say plainly whether psychometrics and exam development is the right place to start.