The effect of reused questions on repeat examinees.

Reusing questions on an examination is a concern because test administrators do not want to unfairly aid examinees by exposing them to questions they have seen on previous examinations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that prior exposure of questions has on the performance of repeat examinees. Two recent administrations of an examination repeated a block of 36 multiple-choice questions. Scores for 130 repeat examinees were analyzed. Examinee ability estimates on reused questions increased but estimates on non-reused questions also increased by an equal amount. Subsequent analyses compared the match between options chosen on the first and second attempts. There is a tendency to choose the same option but it does not appear to be due to examinees remembering questions. Repeat examinees do not appear to be advantaged by seeing reused questions.