I noticed something unusual in a couple of the IRAT answer cards made by Epstein Learning and am interested in this group's reaction to this: 1. In one card, the distribution of correct answers is A-5, B-8, C-14, D-9, E-14 2. In another card, a consecutive string of answers is: A E A C A D A D A D A E A C In particular, card 2 strikes me as problematic: I think students tend to fret when they start seeing patterns. Plus, it's hard to write questions where A is the correct choice every other time. For example, I often ask questions followed by, say, three statements (I, II, III) and then have students choose A. I; B. II; C. I and III; D. I and II; E. all the above. In the case of card 1, where E is often "None of the Above," I would have to start putting this option in another location, which strikes me as rather contrived. I emailed Epstein Learning about this and they said the answers are generated randomly. As a statistician, I have no reason to doubt this statement. But a random sequence of the 5 letters doesn't necessarily mean it's an optimal sequence of answers for a multiple choice test. --Laura ******************************************* Laura Chihara Professor of Mathematics 507-222-4065 (office) Dept of Mathematics 507-222-4312 (fax) Carleton College 1 North College Street Northfield MN 55057