Exam Development Process

The American Board of Registration of
Electroencephalographic and Evoked Potential Technologists
(ABRET)

Examination Development Process

Mission Statement

ABRET seeks to encourage, establish and maintain the highest standards of clinical Electroencephalography, Evoked Potential Technology, and Neurophysiologic Intraoperative and Long Term Monitoring, by offering credentialing examinations to evaluate the skills and knowledge of technologists, and by supporting lab accreditation.

Goals of the credentialing examination

• To validate safe and effective job performance.
• To evaluate job related skills and knowledge.
• To provide an independent assessment and documentation of competency.

ABRET’s charge in relation to testing

• Developing
• Evaluating
• Reviewing trends
• Meeting standards
• Revising and updating

ABRET will respond to the needs of the field and continue to evaluate ways to improve processes without compromising.

Exam Development Process

1. A Job Analysis is developed by experts in the field (subject matter experts or SMEs.)  This process is facilitated by a psychomatrician, reviewed and validated by credentialed technologists.  This document becomes the blue print for the examination.
2. The ABRET Examination Development Committee (EDC) invites credentialed technologists to apply to be item writers.  An application and
   agreements are required.  Item writers participate in an online training process and their initial submissions are critiqued.  Each item writer then
   receives an assignment for writing questions and is given a deadline.
3. The Professional Testing Corporation (PTC) is ABRET’s Testing Service Provider.  PTC receives the questions developed by the item writers and formats each for review.
4. An Item Review Session is conducted for each credentialing examination at least once a year.  The item reviewers are also SMEs from around the country.  These sessions are
   facilitated by a PTC psychomatrician.  During the review session, each exam item is coded to match the Practice Analysis.
5. The items accepted during the review session are placed into the appropriate Item Bank at the PTC Office in New York.
6. PTC is responsible for selecting the items for each exam, based on the specifications for the exam provided by the SMEs and EDC, and approved by the ABRET Board of Directors.
7. The ABRET Board of Directors, with the appropriate credentials, and at least one physician certified by the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology review each form of the credentialing examination along with a PTC psychometrician.
8. Each item is reviewed for clarity, relevance and accuracy and the key verified.
9. The examination is evaluated on how it meets the examination specifications at the time of review.
10. Once the validation process is complete, a cut score study is performed by the exam reviewers.  This sets the passing score for the particular form of the examination.

The current practice analysis for each exam is available on the website.