CBT Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CBT facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the primary purpose of vertical scaling in educational CBT programs? → To compare scores across different grade levels over time
2. What does 'adaptive testing' mean from a candidate's perspective during a CBT exam? → The difficulty of subsequent questions changes based on the candidate's responses
3. A testing program discovers that item X and item Y share the same answer. What is the standard remediation during assembly? → Flag them as enemy items so they are never co-administered
4. In CBT administration, what does NDA stand for and why must candidates sign one? → Non-Disclosure Agreement; to prevent sharing of exam content
5. In a test blueprint, 'cognitive level' most commonly refers to which taxonomy? → Bloom's taxonomy
6. Which platform setting prevents a candidate from returning to previously answered questions in a linear, non-adaptive exam? → Linear-no-review (forward-only navigation) mode
7. Why is a 'table of specifications' used during test blueprint development? → To cross-reference content topics with cognitive levels and item counts
8. What is the definition of primary care? → GP practices, dental practices, community pharmacies and high street optometrists.
9. When a CBT question asks for the step that should occur 'first' in a process, what is the most reliable approach? → Identify the foundational or prerequisite step that must logically precede all others
10. Which statistic is most appropriate for estimating reliability when a test has items scored on multiple response categories (e.g., 0–3 points each)? → Coefficient alpha (Cronbach's alpha)
11. Which of the following do not indicate a speed shock? → Peripheral oedema
12. What is the primary purpose of biometric verification at a CBT testing center? → To confirm the candidate's identity matches the registered test-taker
13. Which security measure is most commonly used by CBT centers to verify a candidate's identity? → Government-issued photo ID
14. A patient's hospital discharge planning should begin with: → During the admissions process
15. What is the chemical symbol for gold? → Au
16. When an examinee requests disability accommodations for a CBT, which document most directly authorizes the testing program to modify standard delivery? → Official documentation from a licensed professional supporting the accommodation request
17. When authoring multiple-choice questions for a professional certification exam, what is the primary purpose of a well-written distractor? → To be plausible to uninformed candidates but incorrect to knowledgeable ones.
18. What is the chemical formula for water? → H2O
19. Which practice best protects exam item content stored in a CBT platform's content management system from unauthorized internal access? → Encrypting the item bank at rest and restricting access by role with full audit logging
20. In automated test assembly (ATA), the objective function is typically set to: → Optimize measurement precision at target ability levels subject to blueprint constraints
21. An organization is deploying a CBT platform across 50 remote testing sites. Which network requirement is most critical for synchronized exam delivery? → Consistent low-latency internet with sufficient bandwidth for concurrent sessions
22. In generalizability theory, the 'universe score' is conceptually analogous to which classical test theory concept? → True score
23. Which test-taking error occurs when a test-taker selects an answer that is true in general but does not specifically address the question being asked? → Selecting a true-but-irrelevant distractor
24. A candidate's CBT session crashes mid-exam and data is lost. Which system feature is designed to recover the session without compromising security? → Checkpoint/resume functionality that restores responses from the last saved state
25. A test blueprint section labeled 'item format distribution' would specify: → The proportion of multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, and simulation items
26. Which of the following represents a violation of test fairness principles when designing a CBT item? → Including cultural references that are only familiar to candidates from a specific region
27. In a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix, convergent validity is supported when: → Correlations between the same trait measured by different methods are high
28. A researcher reports Cronbach's alpha = 0.55 for a 5-item scale. Which action would most directly increase this reliability estimate? → Adding more items that measure the same construct
29. A test is described as having high 'ecological validity.' What does this mean? → Test performance generalizes well to real-world behaviors and settings
30. When must a CBT testing organization inform a candidate of an accommodation decision? → With enough advance notice for the candidate to prepare or appeal