A score is only as meaningful as the science behind it.
Understand the foundations of assessment: reliability, validity, norms, scoring, interpretation and appropriate use. This section is designed for anyone who wants to look beyond the surface of a test result.
The short answer
Anybody can write forty questions and produce a number. What separates an instrument from a quiz is everything that happens afterwards: whether the score holds if the person sits it again, whether it measures what it claims to, who it was normed on, and what interpretation the evidence actually supports. This section is written for anyone — parent, student or professional — who wants to look past the surface of a result.
What people ask about this
What do reliability, validity and norms actually mean?
Reliability, validity, norms and scoring in plain language.
How do I tell an instrument from an online questionnaire?
How to tell an instrument from a questionnaire.
What does a percentile really say about one person?
What a percentile actually says about one person.
