You would think it's ASE's best-kept secret, based on the number of times the question is asked. All ASE test questions are written in workshops by experts in the subject matter of each specific test. These experts represent a national cross-section of the motor vehicle service industry, including working technicians, technical training representatives from auto manufacturers and the aftermarket, customer service professionals, and educators. The procedures for writing and validating test questions are typical of high-stakes, national credentialing programs, and are a key factor in the overall quality of the ASE program.
To ensure that ASE tests closely parallel actual work situations, a considerable amount of time is spent developing each individual question, which may or may not ever become “operational” in an actual ASE test. Here's how the process works:
1.Test questions are developed at test-writing workshops, which are typically comprised of 15 to 20 subject matter experts. A separate three-day test-writing workshop is conducted every 2 to 2-1/2 years for every one of ASE's tests.
2. Before the first question is written at a workshop, the participants review and modify the existing job tasks necessary for a professional to practice successfully in a particular job category. For instance, suspension and steering systems.
3. Individual test questions are written to correspond to these tasks. Questions must meet a number of criteria regarding importance, format, clarity, significance of content, etc. Ambiguous or “trick” questions are not acceptable. Each question is reviewed and modified until accepted by the entire workshop group. The questions that are accepted are then "pre-tested."
4. Pre-testing means embedding the new questions in actual ASE tests to determine the questions' performance. Since test takers do not know which questions are being pre-tested, all questions are answered. However, the answers to the pre-test questions do not affect the test taker’s score in any way.
5. Based on how well a given question performs in pre-test, it may become an actual test question or may be sent to a future workshop where the question will be either discarded or modified and pre-tested again.
6. Even after a question passes the rigors of pre-testing, it continues to be monitored. Every question is statistically tracked for proper performance every time it is used in a test.
7. When a question becomes technically outdated, it is removed from the pool of test questions.
Finally, one more insider scoop: No two ASE tests are ever alike. Every test is newly assembled each time it is given.