Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Forms 20, 21 and 22: Item Development

Abstract

Abstract : The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a multiple aptitude test battery consisting of 10 subtests that is used by the military services to select and classify enlisted personnel. Periodic replacement of operational forms of the ASVAB is necessary to discourage compromise and to update content. This paper details the development and pilot administration of new items for the next round of operational ASVAB Forms 20, 21, and 22. Classical and item response theory item indices were calculated and items that did not meet certain statistical criteria were identified. Rejection of an item was recommended if (a) the item difficulty or (a) discrimination was below .3, (b) the correct option had a negative correlation with total test score, and (c) incorrect options had positive correlations with total test score. In addition, an examination of how well the experimental items matched the ASVAB Form 8a items was made. It was concluded that in general the distributions of the experimental and Form 8a item statistics were similar and that the development of six new ASVAB forms parallel with one another and to ASVAB Form 8a could be accomplished in a later effort. Keywords: Test development; Aptitude tests; Personnel selection.