Horrible question...

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

If you don't know the subject matter, how can you tell whether a test is poorly written?

In my experience (and I'm not picking on anyone in specific here, and there are plenty of excpetions), those who complain about the test *generally* only want a high score (that is, they want the answers). Those who take the test as a learning experience and research the answers *generally* don't complain about the test.

Yes, there are a few questions each year that could be better. But, since no one requires 100% (afaik), those generally don't affect the results.

I don't know, bob. I always have a lot of problems with the test, and when I go over the results, I find that there are one or two questions for which I was honestly mistaken about the rule. The others that I get wrong are situations where I simply didn't understand what they were asking. Everyone always says, "Don't read anything into it." and "You're thinking too much". But I don't find that advice even remotely helpful. And I know there are other people who have the same kinds of issues.

An example is a question that baffled me a couple of years ago. It said something to the effect that the official was ready to give the ball to the inbounding team, but there was no player ready, so the official utilized the resuming play procedure to get the game started. It was supposed to be false. I put true, because I just figured the resuming play procedure meant putting the ball down on the floor and beginning the count. Silly me. What they meant by resuming play procedure was "something listed under the title 'Resuming Play Procedure'" rather than meaning the actions that lie behind those words. In a real game, I would have handled that situation exactly correctly, I just wasn't using the correct wording on the test.

That particular difficulty has been "fixed" now, with the committee ruling that that situation has been added to the "Resuming Play Procedure."

But other types of misunderstandings arise every year. I find the whole situation very, very frustrating.