Tips for Creating a Test
Make sure you don’t already have the test you need
Name the tests carefully so that you tell them apart
Make sure your test questions are Active
Steps to Create a Test
To create a new test, follow these steps:
Step 1: Create the Test and Assign Test Units
1.If you do not already have a Workbench open, select Workbench 
Custom from the main menu.
a.If you want to place program courses or training units onto the test, open a Program Hierarchy window.
b.If you want objective or question test units, open an Objective Hierarchy window.
2.If prompted to select a work area, select the work area and press the OK button.
3.Select Test New from the main menu. A Test Properties workscreen will appear.
4.Enter a title for the test. Name it carefully so that you can easily differentiate your tests from others.
5.Expand the hierarchy to find the units you want to test.
a.If you selected Questions as the unit type, you can select an objective and find them in the "Questions Linked to Objective" links window. See How to Find Groups of Questions for more help.
6.Highlight the unit(s) you want to test and then drag and drop them into the Test Units window on the Test Properties workscreen. All of the units must be of the same type (all objectives, or all questions, etc.).
a.If you change your mind about any of the units you dropped into the window, click the Remove Test Unit button to remove them.
Step 2: Load the Question Pool
1.Click on the Selection page.
a.If your test units consist of the individual questions themselves, then you have already explicitly defined the question pool, and you may skip this step and go on to Step 4: Order Questions.
2.If the test units are not individual questions, then load the question pool, optionally using filters.
3.Click the Load button and select how you would like to load questions.
a.To load all questions in the pool select "Unfiltered". A window will pop up informing you that, "Questions were successfully loaded!"
b.To load all questions except those marked for practice, check "Exclude Practice Questions" by selecting this option, and then use the Load menu again to load questions. Now that this option is checked, you can load questions "Unfiltered" or with a filter and practice questions will be excluded.
c.To use a filter, choose a filter type from the "Define Filter" submenu. This will open a new window listing those filters. Note that each type of filter will have different options.
Use a Question Filter (Optional)
1.From the popup filter window, select the filter from the Defined Filters list and click the Load Defined Filter button. To learn more about Filters, see Defining Filters and Profiles.
2.Highlight a filter from the Defined Filters box and click "Load Defined Filter".
3.Modify the filter, if needed. When the filter is as you want it, press the OK button. If there any syntax errors, the window will remain open for you to correct them.
4.Repeat this process for additional filter types, if necessary. You can use more than one type of filter on a test.
5.At the bottom of the filter window is a checkbox, "Automatically reload …". If this is checked, then you're done loading the question pool. If it was unchecked, then after the filter window closes, click the Load button once more and choose Filtered from the menu. That will load the pool, using the filter(s) you just specified.
Step 3: Select Questions
1.Now that the question pool has been defined, you will need to select which questions in the pool will actually appear on the printed exam.
2.Note that we are still on the Selection page and are working in the Question Pool window. If the Cross Reference window is taking up too much space, you can click the Hide XRef button to remove it.
3.To Manually select questions, check the box next to each question that you want to include on the test.
a.You can also select groups of questions by highlighting them with Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click, and then clicking the Select menu and choosing "All in highlighted rows" or "None in highlighted rows".
4.To use a Profile, click the Select menu and choose a defined profile or click Define Profile.
Define a Profile (Optional)
1.From the popup profile window, select a Limit. This will give VISION the criteria for selecting questions. To learn more about Limits, see Defining Filters and Profiles.
a.For Points, Time, and Number of Questions, you must enter a Value. This tells VISION how many points of questions to select, how much time the test should take, or how many questions should be selected.
b.If you are limiting the test by Objectives, you must use the Weighting tab.
2.If you are using the 'By objectives' Limit click on the Weighting tab. To learn more about Weighting, see Defining Filters and Profiles.
a.Highlight a type of objective and enter the percent of its type to be tested in the '% to Test' box.
b.Enter the number of questions that should be selected from the objective in the 'No. of questions per obj' box.
c.Repeat for all objective types.
3.If you are using the Points, Time or Number of Questions Limit, you can also weight the training units represented on this test.
a.Highlight each training unit and enter the percent of its questions to be tested in the '% to Test' box.
4.Repeat with each training unit. Note the '% Total Weight' on the bottom right corner. You can refresh this total by clicking anywhere in the Test Units box.
5.At the bottom of the Profile window's Limits tab is a checkbox, "Automatically apply …". If this is checked, then the profile has been applied. If it is unchecked, then after you close the profile window with the OK button, you must click the Select button once more and choose "Select by Profile" from the menu. That will apply the profile, selecting the questions accordingly.
Step 4: Order Questions (Optional)
1.Click the Order button to enter question-ordering mode. In question-ordering mode, you can set the order in which the questions will appear on the test. You can do so in three ways:
a.Highlight a question and drag it to a different positions.
b.Click a column headers to sort by that column (such as System ID or User ID). Sorting questions in question-ordering does set the question order.
c.Click the "Shuffle" button to order the questions randomly.
2.Once you are finished, click the Order button again to leave question-ordering mode.
Step 5: Build and Review the Test
3.Go to the Summary tab to review the summary information. This information can help you decide if any adjustments are needed.
1.When you are satisfied with the entire test, click the Build Test button, located at the bottom of the workscreen (all tabs).
2.If you don't like your current randomization of the answer and distractors in the Multiple Choice questions, click the Build Test button again. VISION will re-scramble the order of the answer and distractors for each Multiple Choice question.
3.After Build Test has been completed successfully, click the OK button to save your test. If you are ready, you can also set the test's Status to Approved. Note that once you approve a test it can no longer be edited.
Take care that the printed answer key corresponds to the printed test. Do not perform a rebuild between the printing of the test and answer key. If you rebuild one, rebuild the other.
How to Find Groups of Questions
1.Select Search and then Search from the Main Menu to collect objectives or questions for use on the test.
2.Click the Questions and Tests menu item, highlight your selection and click the Run button.
3.Using the search entitled "Questions" as an example, choose the criteria that you would like to search for.
4.The search operation will display the results in a window having the title of the search. You can stretch this window, if necessary, to show more at a glance.
5.You can drag the items from the search window onto the Test Units menu item of the Test Properties window.
What's Next?
Now that you've created the test, it exists in your file and can be accessed from the Main Menu. Once the test is completed and built, you can generate and print the test. You can also get an answer key, answer sheets or a test specification for the test.
To generate a completed test, or any of the other documents mentioned above, see Generate Test Documents.
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