A12. There are many ways that assessment activities can be designed to increase reliability. For example:
(a) The reliability of a written examination may be increased by avoiding the use of ambiguous wording in examination questions or instructions;
(b) The reliability of an objective test may be increased by undertaking an internal or external review of the content of the testing before it is finalized; and
(c) The reliability of a workplace assessment may be increased by selecting assessors who have comparable high levels of ability, and by providing them with suitable training to enable them to assess the task.
A13. An assessment activity has a high level of validity if it measures what it was intended to measure. Validity is not an absolute measure, and different assessment activities may have different levels of validity. Validity has multiple forms and includes the following:
(a) Face validity—An assessment activity has high face validity if the assessment activity is perceived to measure what it is intended to measure;
(b) Predictive validity—An assessment activity has high predictive validity if the content of the assessment activity relates to the particular aspect of professional competence that it is intended to assess; and
(c) Content validity—An assessment activity has high content validity if the assessment activity provides adequate coverage of the particular aspect of professional competence being assessed.
A14. There are many ways to design assessment activities to increase validity. For example:
(a) Face validity may be increased when assessing the competence of aspiring professional accountants to apply a particular accounting standard, if an examination includes a comprehensive and relevant case study rather than a simple case study based on incomplete information;