ABSTRACT
The scoring scale for a mental measure (e.g., educational and psychological tests) dictates the type and extent of interpretations that are possible. When a particular test is grounded in classical test theory (CTT), for example, the scale should reflect the notion of an extant true score; reliability will give important clues to the authenticity of that true score. Commonly, for CTT-based tests composed of dichotomously scored items or exercises, an examinee’s score is simply the raw score, a summation of correct endorsements. Of course, the raw score need not be the only reported score. Numerous interpretations of the score are derived though transformations of the scale-to some kind of standardized score, for instance. Many such transformations are described in Test Service Bulletin #48, a famous early publication of the Psychological Corporation (1955).
