AICPA考试评分Q&A（三）

    大多数准备或者要参加AICPA（美国注册会计师）的人都知道考试的通过分数为75分，但真正知道这75分是怎么来的，分数里包含了哪些要素的的人很少。这里为大家准备了一些关于AICPA如何评分的Q&A供大家参考。

11. Does that mean difficult testlets can have easier questions and medium testlets can have difficult questions?
Yes. All testlets have questions ranging in difficulty. Questions in difficult testlets just have a higher average level of difficulty than those in medium testlets.
12. What if I’m well prepared but do poorly on the first testlet? Can I still pass?
Yes, you can still pass the exam but you will need to do better on the second and third testlets.
13. Can I get all medium testlets and still pass?
Yes, but for this to happen, you would have good but not excellent performance on the first two testlets, and then excellent performance on the last testlet.
14. What do you mean when you say ※statistical characteristics§ of test questions?
There are three statistics used to describe the questions: Difficulty whether the question is generally easier or more difficult for candidates, Discrimination how well the question differentiates between more able and less able candidates, and Guessing the chances of candidates answering the question correctly just by guessing. The statistics are generated when the questions are administered as pretest questions and used in the scoring when the questions are operational. The formulas for generating the statistics and scoring the Exam come from a scoring approach commonly referred to as ※Item Response Theory.§ Item Response Theory is currently being used or has recently been adopted by nearly all of the large licensing examination programs in this country and also by many of the moderate-sized and smaller examination programs.
15. Can two candidates answer the same number of questions correctly, but get different scores?
Yes, because scores depend on the characteristics of the questions, not just how many are answered correctly. For example, all else being equal, a candidate who correctly answers 10 difficult questions would score more than a candidate who correctly answers 10 easy questions.
16. How was the passing score set for each section?
Volunteers who are licensed CPAs with recent experience supervising entry level CPAs participated in a passing score study. They reviewed test questions and how candidates performed on those questions in order to make judgments of what test performance is required to ensure the protection of the public interest. The results of this study were used by the Board of Examiners (BOE) as a guide when it established the passing scores for each section. These passing scores were then mapped to a score of 75 on the scale used to report scores. This process, known as Standard Setting, is common practice within high stakes testing.
17. How do I find out my scores for each content area of the exam?
We do not release subscores by content area. We do, however, report categories of performance. You should use caution in interpreting your content area performance. The subscores are calculated on fewer items and therefore not as reliable as the final score. The performance comparisons of weaker, comparable and stronger are provided to candidates as a general indicator of performance. The subscores are not disclosed because we do not want to convey a sense of precision in those scores that is unwarranted. That＊s why, in the event you decide to retake any section of the Exam, you should study all content areas. If you study only the areas in which you are weak, you might do better on those areas, but worse on others when you take the Exam again.
18. In general terms, what are the steps taken to produce the reported score?
Initially, for purposes of score reporting, each component (multiple-choice questions, task-based simulations, and written communication) is treated separately. For the multiple-choice and task-based simulation components, Item Response Theory is used to obtain the scaled score for each type of question. The multiple-choice estimate is then
mapped to a score on a multiple-choice scale. Similarly, the task-based simulation estimate is mapped to a score on a task-based simulation scale. The total written communication raw score is mapped to a written communication scaled score. The scores are then combined with the policy weights (60% multiple-choice and 40% simulations for AUD, FAR and REG, 85% multiple-choice and 15% written communications for BEC). The final step involves mapping the aggregate score to the 0 to 99 scale used for score reporting. The process can be viewed in the following diagram.

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