Universal (Generalized) Inventory/Test Scorer

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because it contains certain VITAL and important information in addition
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since the recommended Sun, Incorporated download HAS BEEN CHANGED AND THAT IS
described on that page -- i.e. the NEW, **REQUIRED** Sun Download is described there.

Please NOTE: It is my intention that the Automatic Inventory Scoring Tool be available

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decide to make any use of my scoring utility. Thanks.

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Forget Templates: Inventory Scoring Tool:

A Generalized (or Universal) Scale Scorer has

been implemented as a Java 2 Applet and is available over the Internet

(i.e. over the web to an Internet browser -- please use Internet Explorer).

The first step has the user just copy and paste the particular

scoring system (described below) for a given inventory (or test) into

a textarea on the web page. The Java program then reads the info. out

of that and proceeds to let the user input a client's/student's answers.

A final button press scores the client's response and gives the raw

scale scores on all the scales (the more the merrier).

To switch Inventories (or tests) that are being scored, all the user

would have to do is revisit the same web page and copy and paste the

"scoring system text file" for that second inventory or test in the

textarea and away you go, scoring a client/student on a second inventory/test.

As I indicated this thing, now officially called the "Universal (Generalized)

Scale/Test Scorer" Java 2 applet, is finished. (I made it a Java 2 applet so that

scoring systems of more than 30,000 characters could still be used.) If you

have not yet installed the Java 2 JRE and SDK (ver 1.4.0) plug-in on your Internet

Explorer Browser, you would have to allow 60-120 min. (at 56K) for that download

on first use; then on, the plug-in is already there and the applet will work

immediately.

This plug-in is NOT available for Mac and may not become available anytime soon.

As written inventories/tests are limited to 999 items for clients to respond to.

This should be no problem since I know of no inventory much more than 0.6 that

size. Each item on the test/inventory can have only one response from the

client (things that require more than that have to be considered one item

per student/client decision). Items may vary in how many options they have.

T/F can be mixed with a,b,c ... Items with two or three options can be

mixed with items with any number of other options. (T and "a" are considered

to be the same as are F and "b".)

SCREEN SHOT #1: What you see when program opens. It is "waiting"

for you to copy the scoring system text file and paste it in here (using Ctrl-V)

Using the Scale/Test Scorer: Part 1:

The scoring system is represented by a text file like the one shown directly

below. This is a "test scoring example" or an example of how a teacher might

well use the "scale/test scorer" for grading a test. In this example, a

test item scoring example, the student has two choices T or F, or equivalently

"a" or "b".)

001 (indicating test item 1)

0000

0010 ("b" or "F" is correct here)

002 (indicating test item 2)

0020 ("a" or "T" is correct here)

0000

003 (indicating test item 3)

0030 ("a" or "T" is correct here)

0000

004 (... you got the idea)

0040

0000

Note: Item numbers (or scale numbers) are the first number of each

set (always THREE digits). The 2 sets of numbers below each item number

are the items scored up for T (or a) and the items scored up on the Item

(scale) for F (or b), respectively. Obviously when it is a test, the item

scored up is the item number itself (and only one option scores the item up).

NOTE also that an extra 0 (ZERO) is at the end of each

item-number(s)-scoring-a-scale(or item)-up-for-given-option

line (and all the "0"s shown are ZEROs). (Also, so you understand this thing

conceptually: More than two lines may be below the scale(item) number if

the scale (or item) is scored up for c, d, e ... question option choices.

Now, the way an inventory scoring system text file would look, such as one that

would be used by a behavioral scientist scoring a personality inventory.

Here let's consider a true/false inventory (like the MMPI2). It

would have a text scoring system file that looks like this:

001

0010040050160180 (these are item numbers scoring Scale 001 up for True)

0020150170 (these are item numbers scoring Scale 001 up for False)

002

0030070090171010 (these are item numbers scoring Scale 002 up for True)

0040160180 (these are item numbers scoring Scale 002 up for False)

and so forth. (Do not include explanatory comments shown above in actual scoring

system text file.)

Teachers and Behavioral Scientists:

Put no spaces (returns) at the top of the scoring system text file, AND

directly after the last zero of the last option of the last item (scale)

have two returns. MAKING A SCORING SYSTEM TEXT (.txt) file IN RAW TEXT

FORMAT (no wrap), such as Notepad or (on Mac SimpleText) is as simple as that!

(Unfortunately, no Mac version of this applet has yet been produced, because

Mac browsers have not as well updated their Java runtime environment and/or

needed plug-ins for Mac are not available.)

Obviously this laborious task of making a scoring system text file need be

done ONLY once. Then large inventories with any number of scales can be

scored as fast as you input the student/client scores.

SCREEN SHOT #2: What the screen looks like after you paste in the scoring

system. A very simple T-F/a-or-b test scoring system is shown in the example above.

AFTER YOU CLICK THE BUTTON YOU GET THE FOLLOWING SCREEN:

SCREEN SHOT #3: The program now "awaits" for your input of the student/client

answers (ONE ANSWER PER INVENTORY OR TEST ITEM).

Using the Scale/Test Scorer: Part 2:

The way the response or answer text file (also a .txt document) must be is equally

or more simple: With NO returns at the top of the answer text file and

no EXTRA spaces (returns) between answers, the answer file looks like this:

Have NO return after the last answer (when you are ready to save this

text file the cursor should be "sitting" right after the last response.

SCREEN SHOT #4: The student answers text file is copied and pasted into

the TextArea.

You click the button once again and the next screen you get is:

SCREEN SHOT #5: You have now provided the program both with the scoring

system and with the student/client answers to the inventory/test item. One

more press of that same old button and you will get the student's score on each

test item OR on each Inventory Scale and the screen will look like this:

Final elaboration on creating scoring system text files (Part 1 elaboration):

To complete the explanation of how to use the Inventory/Test Scoring tool,

I should note that when an Inventory scale is never scored up for a particular

selection or, for a test, when an item option is not used, this must be coded in

the scoring system text file with 4 zeros (0000). Actually you already saw an

example of this for a 2 option type test (in the first example above).

On an inventory, where a particular scale is scored up, happenstantially, only

for true OR for false responses, this is the same type of circumstance. The portion of

the scoring system pertaining to such a scale would look like this:

001

0000 (no items marked T score Scale 1 up )

0040160180

002

0010040050160180

0000 (no items marked F score Scale 1 up )

(Technically this last one could appear in the scoring system text file simply as:

002

0010040050160180

(No need to have any line for any option/options where that option does not score a

scale up and beyond which no later scale scores the scale/item up.)

Let me provide a couple other examples to make sure the reader understands the

parenthetical note above.:

Let's say you are making a scoring system text file for an inventory, i.e.

we will use another behavioral scientist inventory example here. Each item answered

by the client has 5 possible choices: a,b,c,d, and e. For this example, let's say

that some particular scale is scored up (happenstantially) only for some certain item

where the client chooses 'a' and for another set of items where the client chooses

'c'. Let's pretend this is scale number 5. The scoring coding for this scale in the

scoring system text file would look like this:

005

0010050070191120

0000

0020060080220

OR you could do it like this but the extra "0000"s are not necessary:

005

00100500700019001200

0000

0020060080220

0000

If you happen to be a teacher using this for test scoring and not a behavioral

scientist doing inventory scoring, you should recall that each test item is essentially

a "scale" (also recall that only one response per question is allowed). For you,

the teacher, a test where items offer 4 - 5 choices would have a scoring system that

looks like the following example:

001

0000

0010

002

0000

0020

003

0030

004

0000

0040

and so forth (recall that any options below the last option that "counts" need not

be coded -- as in item 001 and 002 and 003 above).

The final thing I need to tell users of this software is that while you can use

a Copy menu item OR Ctrl-C to copy your scoring system file, my software has no

menu for paste. Thus you must use Ctrl-V to paste the scoring system (and later

to paste the client/student answers) into the textarea.

That's the whole story on how to use it.

A briefer though less complete set of instructions ( a "Quick Start") is
now available. Click HERE to get there. Though
these instructions do not handle every case, they do get you up and running
with all the knowledge needed to score several inventories and tests.

NOW, TO GO TO AND USE THE TOOL CLICK THIS LINK

OR

TO USE A FANCIER/PRETTIER VERSION OF THE SCORING APPLET CLICK THIS LINK