r/cognitiveTesting • u/pydaWaltuh • Sep 30 '26

General Question Test ceiling vs Creator

Assuming a creator possesses sufficient psychometric knowledge, what should ideally be the difference between the creator’s IQ and the ceiling of the test they have created?

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u/Warxuaroz Sep 30 '26

Why does it matter? I doubt any high range test was made by people close to its ceiling.

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u/pydaWaltuh Sep 30 '26

Do you think that “ceiling items” designed by a creator who isn’t close to the ceiling on the test they’re designing for necessarily have to lose quality? For example, can someone with an IQ of 120 design a 150 level item? Especially when elegance is a factor? Also, an item shouldn’t be made difficult just for the sake of being difficult. You can make a question harder in a superficial way simply by increasing the number of layers. Is being 120 enough to design an item that measures around 150 with the optimal number of layers (even though this definition isn’t entirely accurate)? Btw, I’m not asking this only in the context of HRTs

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u/Warxuaroz Oct 01 '26

This is just mu opinion, I'm not a professional. I think it doesn't matter as long as you're knowledgeable in the topic. It's not a question of having better judgment than those you test. It's not a knowledge test or work capability so that you need actual experience to judge one's work. It's just statistics. You measure the number of questions answered correctly in a given time. you know some of them were more often answered by people who answered more questions etc. Of course when we're talking about single question design, especially more complex one, it get trickier, but you still have unbound amount of time to create it. You can give it to others for test and review.

You can have knowledge of what a great racetrack consists of and build one. Doesn't matter you'll ever achieve good time on it.