5 Practicality
Practicality is an integral part of the concept of test usefulness and affects many different aspects of an examination. It can be defined as the extent to which an examination is practicable in terms of the resources necessary to produce and administer it in its intended context and use. A practical examination is one that does not place an unreasonable demand on available resources.
We consult relevant stakeholders during test development and revision processes on aspects of practicality, such as test length. For example, while longer tests can increase validity because they capture more measurement data they may be impractical to administer. In addition an overly long exam could induce fatigue in candidates, which in turn could introduce error into the measurements.
We also work with our network of centres to make sure that the systems and processes we use are up-to-date and flexible enough to allow effective and efficient administration. In
line with our educational mission we wish to maintain access for the widest proportion of candidates possible. This means we must pay attention to holding costs at a reasonable level and make sure that our tests can be administered sufficiently frequently.