The following documents establish a theoretical basis for conversational testing.



  1. Why Testing? – Why testing plays a critical role in maintaining a free, competitive society.
  2. You Can’t Test That – It isn’t just that conversational tests are better than multiple-choice – there are simply concepts that you can’t reasonably test with multiple-choice that you can indeed test with conversational tests.
  3. Benefits – The multiple benefits of conversational testing – from measuring response latency to accepting alternative correct responses and many more.
  4. Item Efficiency for Conversational Exams – A definition of item efficiency and an illustration of why conversational items are more efficient than multiple choice or fill-in the blank.
  5. Elevator Speech – Eleven bullet points summarizing the reasons conversational testing is so powerful.
  6. Comparison of Advanced Item Types – Many so-called ‘advanced item types’ are actually multiple-choice items with a different user interface. A comparison of these innovative item types with conversational items.
  7. Brief History – How testing has evolved from tribal tests, through multiple-choice testing and performance testing to conversational tests.