What is Testing: Definition and 631 Discussions

A test or examination (informally, exam or evaluation) is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verbally, on paper, on a computer, or in a predetermined area that requires a test taker to demonstrate or perform a set of skills.
Tests vary in style, rigor and requirements. There is no general consensus or invariable standard for test formats and difficulty. Often, the format and difficulty of the test is dependent upon the educational philosophy of the instructor, subject matter, class size, policy of the educational institution, and requirements of accreditation or governing bodies.
A test may be administered formally or informally. An example of an informal test is a reading test administered by a parent to a child. A formal test might be a final examination administered by a teacher in a classroom or an IQ test administered by a psychologist in a clinic. Formal testing often results in a grade or a test score. A test score may be interpreted with regards to a norm or criterion, or occasionally both. The norm may be established independently, or by statistical analysis of a large number of participants.
A test may be developed and administered by an instructor, a clinician, a governing body, or a test provider. In some instances, the developer of the test may not be directly responsible for its administration. For example, Educational Testing Service (ETS), a nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization, develops standardized tests such as the SAT but may not directly be involved in the administration or proctoring of these tests.

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  1. G

    Testing amount of sodium hydroxide in soap

    i'm doing a task to find the amount of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in a liquid soap. i have to use titration in it. how exactly would I do this? thanks
  2. B

    Using a hydraulic press for sample testing experiment. Need Help.

    Hello, I am using a hydraulic shop press, to test the strength of acrylic weld joints. Here are my questions. -I replaced the pressure gauge that was included with a very precise digital gauge. The hydraulic piston that presses down has a removable circular head 2” DIA. Its neck is 1.48”...
  3. D

    MHB Testing a Linear Stepwise Regression Model - Need Advice!

    Hi folks. Just looking for some input please. I have a dataset containing interval data (one dependent and 6 independent variables) and taken a random 90% sample (approx 300 observations). I've performed a linear stepwise regression on the 90%, in order to obtain a model to predict the...
  4. harrylin

    Scientifc method, hypotheses and prediction testing

    In a parallel thread the scientific method became a subtopic, together with claims concerning "Intelligent Design"; a little elaboration may be useful. A discussion of the "scientific method" can be found in Wikipedia (I think that the summary is quite OK); a clear description can also be found...
  5. P

    Why does necking occur during tensile testing of ductile materials?

    Why does necking occur during tensile testing of ductile materials?
  6. P

    Can GW detectors detect scalar and vector radiation modes?

    Literally running out the door, but came upon this. It seems to be a really interesting avenue to test GR vs. other gravity theories using hoped for GW detectors. http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.2585
  7. V

    What can I do to make my wind tunnel testing project more complex?

    Hello all, I'm in my final year of engineering so I'm required to complete a thesis as part of that. My topic is to investigate the wind loading on a typical conveyor belt + truss arrangement, because there's a lot of uncertainty in industry about drag coefficients etc. I've attached a model...
  8. S

    Medical What Are Some Alternative Methods for Testing Drug Concentration In Vivo?

    Hi, I am building a device. I need an in vivo procedure to perform the experiment. The experiment is based on shinning the red led light on to something just say finger. But I can't test it on any people or animals as of now. I need measure the measure drug concentration. So I need some kinda...
  9. Whovian

    C/C++ C++ Prime Testing: Find & Fix Errors

    Alright. I know how incredibly inefficient this algorithm is, but I felt like giving this a whirl. #include <iostream> #include <cmath> using namespace std; bool prime(int x) { bool j = true; for (double i = 2;i == x;i++) { if (x/i == floor(x/i)) { j = false; } } return j; }...
  10. X

    Hypothesis Testing: Using Equations for μ<μ0

    I have a question about the equations used for hypothesis testing. They all look like this one here: H0: μ = μ0 H1: μ > μ0 For various situations.. sigma know, sigma unknown etc. So H0 is the first claim and H1 is the second claim. But this means the second claim is > than the first...
  11. N

    Testing RAM on Board using Machine Assembly Code

    I'm currently taking a Microprocessor course and we are adding to our breadboard week by week. The most recent add on was a UT6264CPCL RAM chip. Other chip specifications are given below in in 2. Homework Equations . My question is, how do we test to make sure that the RAM is working using two...
  12. Z

    Brake Release Pressure Leak Testing

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  13. H

    Which Method to Use for Testing Convergence in Integrals with Substitution?

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  14. G

    Why do tensile testing graphs show a negative slope at these regions?

    Do tensile testing machines reduce the value of load in these regions? If yes, why? If no, what's happening in the graph?
  15. R

    Testing my B-spline surface function

    I have created a program in MATLAB that creates a b-spline surface from a set of (x,y,z) points. I would like to see if my program works before I develop it into a full program (user interface plus lots of options). Here's what I'm asking... Could someone generate a b-spline surface of degree...
  16. S

    Testing the Limits of Special Relativity: Questions and Insights

    1. Consider a correlation function between two points `A(x1,t1)` and `B(x2,t2)`, we need to integrate over paths which could be infinite long. But the time length `(t1-t2)` is finite, so if A and B are the coordinates of one single particle, then all of the paths from A to B should be time-like...
  17. M

    HiI am testing that data are normally distributed by using

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  18. R

    Hi. I'm testing a PMT and I'm surprised by the following. With power

    Hi. I'm testing a PMT and I'm surprised by the following. With power supply (-900v on K) and with no charge between output electrode and ground, I measure -126 V same with scope (Zin = 1 M) or DVM (Zin = 10 M). I must precise that this experiment has be made in a room not completely dark. Can...
  19. Chris L T521

    LaTeX Testing LaTeX (powered by MathJax)

    \[\int_0^{\infty}e^{-x^2}\,dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}\] This is inline: \(\frac{\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}\) Other centered equation $$\Gamma(x)=\int_0^{\infty}e^{-t}t^{x-1}\,dt $$
  20. Newtons Apple

    Testing to see if an Equation is a function

    hey guys. Something's been bothering me.. Well two things.. First of all, when looking at an algebraic equation and testing to see if its a function, why can X be squared, but not Y? our professor and book, gives the impression that something like: x^2 +y =1 is a function while...
  21. N

    Hypergeometric Probability Testing: Simple Question

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  22. J

    ADC INL/DNL code density testing help

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  23. D

    Hardhat testing with steel ball dropped from a height

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  24. U

    Testing inequalities on intervals

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  25. A

    Experiment testing Rotational Kinetic Energy with a hollow cylinder

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  26. S

    Tensile Testing (Determining Young's Modulus)

    Question: Why is it not sensible to calculate the Young's modulus of the material (steel) when the experiments was conducted? But I thought it should be possible to calculate the Young's modulus after plotting the stress/strain curve. Young's modulus can be found by finding the gradient of...
  27. G

    SR, Inertial frames, Movement, Testing

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  28. M

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  29. A

    Testing String Theory: Exploring the Possibilities

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  30. B

    Re: Building a hydrodynamics water tunnel for surface water wheel testing.

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  31. C

    Tensile Testing - Material Failure Prediction

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  32. J

    PVC (PolyVynyl Chloride) testing ?

    Is there any way to test things to see if those things are made of PVC? It's toxic, but if you have things that you are unsure as to what kind of plastic they are made of you would want to know if they are made of PVC. By the way, if you have flip flop shoes, throw them out because almost 100%...
  33. L

    Statistical samples and testing

    For electronic devices that are made in large quantities, it's nearly impossible to test all the devices. How many samples do we have to test to get good confidence on the entire lot. Also, how do you select the samples for test - just pick them in random?
  34. D

    Creep Testing Help - Secondary creep rate

    I tested creep in the labs at univeristy, one thing i am confused about is, we made a graph of the extension against time. Taking the gradient gives us E or secondary creep rate. Homework Statement The equation for this (without using gradient ) is, E= A stress^n e^-Qc/RT A and n are...
  35. J

    Testing torque for motor selection

    I need to drag a ring across a surface by pulling it with a string attached to a motor. The motor will simply coil the string, or the motor will be attached to a pulley and the ring will be tied on the rope. My key problem: the surface is not conventional so there is no friction coefficient...
  36. B

    Help with testing the convergence of a series

    Hi i have to show that the series 1+2r+r2+2r3+r4+2r5+... converges for r=\frac{2}{3} and diverges for r=\frac{4}{3} using the nth root test. The sequence \sqrt[n]{a_{n}}comes a bit complicated so i was wondering if I can remove the 1st term a1=1 and show that 2r+r2+2r3+r4+2r5+... converges...
  37. TestTubeGames

    Testing a Relativity Simulator

    I've been working on a Special Relativity simulation/game, and I'm interested in getting some feedback. Basically, it is a flash game that incorporates time dilation, length contraction, and so on. I'm hoping that it will be a fun way to make these abstract (and confusing) ideas hands-on...
  38. S

    Building a Recoil Simulation Machine for Scope Testing

    I work for a company that manufactures and sells night vision scopes, day time optics, lasers, and pretty much anything that mounts to a weapon. I wanted to test our equipment to see how well it holds up to various recoil of different weapons but ammunition is very expensive and it is very...
  39. G

    Drug Testing in Schools and Organizations: Addressing Adderall Abuse

    Should schools and organizations start drug testing students to monitor abuse of drugs like adderall, which is widely used recreationally by lots of kids to boost test scores?
  40. T

    Can someone name this method testing DE's to be homogeneous

    [PLAIN]http://www.tempneff.com/jailtime/differential%20equations/HDE.PNG I learned how to solve homogeneous DE's from youtube videos. This presented a problem when during my last test, a question stated that i should show a DE to be homogeneous. The way I learned was different then the rest...
  41. J

    Automation Testing Unit Control Panel: Need Help!

    Hi, I am building control panel for automation testing unit. - Ambient Temperature to measure:- - pulley speed and temperature to measure. So far... for Ambient Temp I have used T-Type and for pulley speed I have used magnetic pick up 10V. And for interfacing used USB6009. Can...
  42. N

    Testing Wave Properties in a School Lab: Longitudinal or Transverse?

    I have looked everywhere to find a simple, easy test to find whether a wave is longitudinal or transverse, I've read my textbook and I think it may be to do with polarisation but I am not quite sure how, or someone said that passing the wave through a vacuum would determine the type of wave. any...
  43. N

    Statistics - Hypothesis testing question

    Hello folks. This was in my exam and I wasn't sure how to solve it. Homework Statement A sample of 67 respondents was taken collectively by a population of 6,456 units. The number of those who said they were available to implement a development program were 35. To implement the program...
  44. S

    LaTeX Testing laTEX or TEX - ellipse equation

    I tried using site, https://www.physicsforums.com/mathjax/test/preview.html but after putting in the codes and pressing enter, nothing happens. I will test by trying the code tags here: \frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1 \frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1 For reference, I used...
  45. C

    Testing E & B Fields: Is This the Only Way?

    Is the only way to tell that I have a B field, is to take a test charge and place it stationary and see that it doesn't move? And then fire a test charge and see that it gets deflected when it is moving at a speed. And if my test charge moved from rest I would know there is an E field. Is...
  46. B

    Suggested waveform Amplifier for electromagnetoc coil testing?

    Hi everyone, I am currently doing some experimentation with electromagnetic coils, I realize I will need a waveform amplifier for the testing using my rsr32 function generator. Could someone point me in the direction of a decently priced one?
  47. A

    Testing the field strength of a permanent bar magnet

    Hi, I've just completed a prac, where a beam was placed into a solenoid with a current flowing through it, causing a force to exerted down and I balanced out the force by placing weights on the other end in the effort of calculating the magnetic field strength. Anyway, one of the short answer...
  48. wolram

    Testing loop quntum cosmology

    arXiv:1108.0079 [pdf, ps, other] Gravitational wave generation in loop quantum cosmology Paulo M. Sá, Alfredo B. Henriques Comments: 7 pages, 8 figures, revtex4 Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) We calculate the full spectrum, as observed...
  49. Z

    Testing optimality via complementary slackness

    I can't for the life of me understand this topic. given a point x =(1,1,1,1,1,1,1) and a primal LP, does the point solve the primal? An internet search revealed no answer to my question, only criteria which involves knowing y. I am aware that \sumaijxj < b then yi = 0, so I at least know...
  50. D

    Hypothesis testing, why alpha cannot be zero

    Ok someone tell me the official explanation of why alpha cannot be zero in hypothesis testing.
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