An Introduction to the Computerized Adaptive Testing

The computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has unsurpassable advantages over the traditional testing. It has become the mainstream in large scale examination in modern society. This paper gives a brief introduction to CAT including differences between traditional testing and CAT, the principals of CAT works, Psychometric theory and computer algorithms of CAT, the advantages and cautions of CAT. In the end, the development of CAT in China is reviewed.