Customer Reviews

Tests & Measurement for People Who (Think They) Hate Tests & Measurement

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is pretty basic and would be best for undergrads or masters students who have little or no background in statistics but need to know a little something about testing. Salkind's writing style is informal and inviting and thus reassuring for people who "Think they hate" the subject, but it thereby glosses over a lot of details. I teach doctoral level students but have taught this material to advanced undergraduates in the past. Spring 2008 I used it as an supplement to Allen & Yen and my own course notes. It turned out that the ones who I selected this book for (applied nontechnical types such as school psychologists) pretty much knew everything in this book already before starting the class, while the more technically savvy ones could infer it from the main text. For doctoral students, learning the psychometrics "for real" i.e., with equations and real data to work with, is essential. While they don't always like it, it's important if they are going to be building scales or using them in a critical way. (In my view, hiding all the details of a mathematical subject like test theory does the students no favors no matter what their level, but I understand the difference between student levels and demands of different programs.) There is a bit of classical test theory and classical item analysis and a lot of words about various item formats, ranging from constructed response, varieties of multiple choice, to interviews, some of which are quite sensible and others seem strange to me as a psychometrician, e.g., the author's preference for matching items, which must entail a substantial degree of local dependence and for which there is, to my knowledge, no straightforward model-based analysis. The presentation here is rather laundry-list and could benefit from being more systematic, but again, that might be too hard for the target audience. There is also some nice discussion about testing ethics and the like, much of which could be given to students by having them read the relevant APA/AERA standards documents, though of course at the cost of likely boredom on their part.

The product came fast and there was no highlighting at all in the book. Also processed my order very fast.

I am taking my first Pyschometrics course in graduate school. This text makes it very easy to understand the concepts... and there are a lot of them. Salkind is thorough without bogging down the text with information that should be left for a second, more in depth volume of the book. Hopefully, Salkind decides to put out a second edition because there are many typo errors that his editor should have caught. Nonetheless, the information is presented straightforward and is an excellent resource for the beginning psychometrician.

This book makes it easy to understand the more complex terms and concepts taught in Tests and Measurements. The wording and phrasing is somewhat slang and surprising at first because of being used to reading more technical texts, but it is clear cut, easy to follow, and even comical.

This is a great book for people going into the field of administration in public education. Easy to read an understand.

As an introductory text or as a text for review/update for practicing professionals, this book provides a complete understanding in a well-thought out format from basic to advanced issues about tests and measurement. It has been helpful to me both as a resource and as the required text for a graduate course in Tests & Measurement. The author's approach to practice questions at the end of each chapter, wherein he asks and gives the answers, seems to be a concept sharpening device, particularly liked by many students. Altogether, this is the only text I have seen that is readily and continuously readable for those who think that the subject is dry and boring. Adjunct Professor, Concordia University, Graduate Education

This book is really straight foward and puts it into terms you can understand for those that it takes an extra second to understand a new concept.