Item Review Guide
1. Purpose
Thank you for your participation! As a subject matter expert (SME) in your field, you will be reviewing an item for an upcoming exam. This exam will help determine whether or not test takers have the necessary knowledge and skills to work in a specified role in your industry.
The item you are reviewing was written by another SME in your field. Your mission is to evaluate it based on research-based writing principles.
Note that you will have up to 2 hours to review an item. However, typical reviews usually take from 5-15 minutes to complete.
2. Security and Confidentiality
Because these items might be used on an upcoming exam, it is extremely important that you keep the item completely private and unavailable to view by others, including while working on electronic devices such as cell phones.
3. Overall Process
There are three main steps to creating items. Most experts participate in all of these activities, so please note that you might be asked to also write items.
- Item Writing: A SME writes an item.
- Review Items: A different SME(s) reviews the item using research-based item writing principles. The item either “passes” the review or is returned to the item writer for revision. Oftentimes an item is required to pass multiple reviews.
- Item Revision/Revise: The initial SME revises the item while considering the feedback from the reviewer.
4. Review Time
To help facilitate the test development process, you will have up to 2 hours to complete your review. Typical reviews take from 5-15 minutes to complete. You can save your review and come back to it, as long as it’s within the 2-hour time limit. After that time, your review will expire. A warning will let you know when your time is complete.
5. Reviewing an Item
The review screens will guide you step-by-step through the process. Please use your best judgment as you answer each review question. Your feedback will be sent to the author for their consideration, so please provide clear, constructive feedback.
Answer Item
To start the review, mark the correct answer(s) as if you were a test-taker. Provide an explanation if your selection does not match the authoring SME’s choice.
Question Review
This section asks review questions related to the question, or stem, of the item.
Read each review question while carefully considering the item; then answer either “yes” or “no.” If your response raises questions about the item, please explain your answer. Note this feedback will be sent back to the authoring SME, so it is helpful to provide clear, constructive responses.
Correct Answer Review
This section asks review questions related to the correct answer of the item. If there is more than one correct answer, you will need to answer a set of review questions for each correct answer.
Read each review question while carefully considering the item; then answer either “yes” or “no.” If your response raises questions about the item, please explain your answer. Note this feedback will be sent back to the authoring SME, so it is helpful to provide clear, constructive responses.
Incorrect Answer Review
This section asks review questions related to the incorrect answers of the item. You will need to answer a set of review questions for each incorrect answer.
Read each review question while carefully considering the item; then answer either “yes” or “no.” If your response raises questions about the item, please explain your answer. Note this feedback will be sent back to the authoring SME, so it is helpful to provide clear, constructive responses.
Final Evaluation
Decide if your item passes the review. An item can clearly pass, pass with minor changes, or clearly fail. Options might be unavailable (grayed out) based on your responses to previous review questions.
If passing an item, you further will be asked to rate the difficulty of the item. If either passing with minor changes or failing an item, you can add an additional comment regarding the item for the authoring SME.
6. Item Writing Principles
Item writing principles are research-based guidelines the authoring SME should follow to help create high-quality items. To read the item writing principles used during item writing, you can access the Item Writing Guide here.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact us by either emailing support@certiverse.com or by submitting a ticket from this article.