Can Computers Write College Admissions Tests?

For many years psychological tests have been scored by machines, and recently computers have assembled existing items into tests and have scored essay examinations. This study goes beyond these earlier tech-niques and explores the possibility of computer item writing. A computer procedure for writing Verbal Comprehension items was developed and used to write a 72-item test. This test, together with the Wide Range Vocabu-lary Test, was administered to University of Iowa freshmen. The test intercorrelations, reliabilities, and correlations with grades suggest that, in principle, computers can write college admissions tests. Pos-sible objections to computer written tests are considered