We are thrilled to announce the release of the fully-adaptive version of the English TrueNorth Speaking Test. This assessment will be released on October 14, 2020 and will replace the previous versions of our TrueNorth speaking assessments.
Before any changes are made to your account, we want to share the exciting new benefits of full adaptivity, how this will affect your account, and what actions need to be taken from your side. We will summarize most of the need-to-know information here for you and will have a link to additional resources below!
The key benefits of a fully-adaptive English speaking assessment
The test will adapt with each question to the test-taker’s ability level
Part 1 of the test will be 30-50% shorter than before
The test has additional levels of precision in scoring
The improved version replaces the old version at no additional cost
What is different for test takers?
The user experience does not change significantly in format. However, the tasks that a user receives in Part 1 of the assessment will now vary based on their ability. Part 1 of the test will be shorter, with only between 12 and 20 tasks required to get to an accurate score result vs. the 30 tasks of the previous version. By adapting to the test-taker, the test will be a more enjoyable experience since they will be subjected to questions that are within their range of skill rather than all items, regardless of skill. Here is an overview of the differences:
What is different for administrators?
There is no difference in the administration of the assessment. The dashboard, score reports, test assignment, etc. is all staying exactly the same. However, results will have an added level of precision. While the previous version was longer, there were actually fewer tasks that targeted the actual ability level of the test-taker. Because the test form is now immediately tailored to their performance, more prompts are given near their ability and provide this additional level of precision in measuring their true ability. We arrive at this level of precision in an even shorter amount of time (about 30-50% of the time of the previous version).
What is needed from you?
The current English speaking assessment will be replaced with the new version on October 15th. It will not automatically switch over but will require an opt-in action from within your admin portal. Only one administrator needs to take the action, and a prompt will be seen on the main dashboard until the action is taken. When the opt-in has been completed, we will record which account user confirmed it.
Reaching a fully-adaptive speaking assessment has always been part of our vision at Emmersion. This accomplishment is increasing the impact of our mission to close the global communication gap. We are excited for this achievement and anticipate making all other languages adaptive in the future, though no timeframe has been announced at this time.
To learn more about the release of adaptivity, you can review Additional Documents and Documents below. If you have any questions or issues making the change, please contact your client success manager or our support team at [email protected].
Additional Documents and Resources