ABSTRACT
Adaptive testing, or tailored testing as it is sometimes called, is the process of adjusting the difficulty level of successive items presented to a test-taker in an attempt to make the difficulty of the item appropriate for the test-taker. Binet (1909) did this in the first intelligence tests, and the process has continued to this day on the Stanford Binet IQ test. The procedure requires individualized testing, with a test administrator for each test-taker, and is impractical for large-scale testing. The paper and pencil test was invented to provide the needed administrative efficiency. With interactive computers readily available the computer can replace the human as test administrator, so individualized testing is again attractive.
