Form assembly for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) [electronic resource] : an optimal and a heuristic approach

80 Pages·0.77 MB·English

by  Kunde, Dietmar

NPS ARCHIVE
1997.03
KUNDE, D.
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
THESIS
FORM ASSEMBLY FOR THE ARMED SERVICES
VOCATIONAL APTITUDE BATTERY (ASVAB)
AN OPTIMAL AND A HEURISTIC
APPROACH
by
Dietmar Kunde
March, 1997
'hesis Advisor: Robert F. Dell
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
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March, 1997 Master's Thesis
4. TITLEANDSUBTITLE FORMASSEMBLYFORTHEARMEDSERVICES 5. FUNDINGNUMBERS
VOCATIONALAPTITUDEBATTERY(ASVAB)-ANOPTIMALANDAHEURISTIC
APPROACH
AUTHOR(S)
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DietmarKunde
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Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, CA 93943-5000
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ABSTRACT
13.
The 1948 Selective Service Act established a process whereby all United
States (US) military applicants take an aptitude test to measure their
suitability for military job specialties. The latest version of these
tests, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) was
,
introduced in 1968. Approximately 900,000 High School students from
14,000 US High Schools take the ASVAB test each year. This "paper and
pencil" test requires the applicant to answer multiple choice questions
(items) on a printed form. The creation of paper and pencil forms in one
of the ten test topics is called form assembly. Form assembly consists
of picking 20 to 35 items from an item pool of about 300 items such
that: 1) each item appears on at most one form; 2) each form's result
represents the applicant's capability; and 3) each form has the same
level of difficulty. The thesis models the creation of paper and pencil
forms as a mixed integer linear goal program and solves the problem both
optimally and heuristically. Computational results for seven ASVAB-Tests
show both methods help improve the form assembly process.
14. SUBJECTTERMS 15. NUMBEROFPAGES
Optimization, Mixed IntegerLinearProgramming. Form Assembly, ASVAB 57
16. PRICECODE
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
FORM ASSEMBLY FOR THE ARMED SERVICES
VOCATIONAL APTITUDE BATTERY (ASVAB)
AN OPTIMAL AND A HEURISTIC
APPROACH
Dietmar Kunde
Captaxn, Ger//man Army
M.S., Federal Armed Forces University, Munich, 1985
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH
from the
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
March 1997

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JTfiREY C 3-6101 ABSTRACT MONTEREY CA 43343-5101
The 1948 Selective Service Act established a process
whereby all United States (US) military applicants take an
aptitude test to measure their suitability for" military job
specialties. The latest version of these tests, the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) was introduced
,
in 1968. Approximately 900,000 High School students from
14,000 US High Schools take the ASVAB test each year. 'This
"paper and pencil" test requires the applicant to answer
multiple choice questions (items) on a printed form. The
creation of paper and pencil forms in one of the ten test
topics is called form assembly. Form assembly consists of
picking 20 to 35 items from an item pool of about 300 items
such that: 1) each item appears on at most one form; 2) each
form's result represents the applicant's capability; and 3)
each form has the same level of difficulty. The thesis
models the creation of paper and pencil forms as a mixed
integer linear goal program and solves the problem both
optimally and heuristically Computational results for seven
.
ASVAB-Tests show both methods help improve the form assembly
process.
VI
1
. . . .....
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I 1
A. TEST THEORY BACKGROUND 2
B OUTLINE 6
II RELATED RESEARCH 7
III OPTIMIZATION MODEL AND HEURISTIC 9
A. OPTIMIZATION MODEL 9
B HEURISTIC APPROACH 13
IV. COMPUTATIONAL RESULTS 19
A. OPTIMIZATION PARAMETER SETTINGS 19
B OPTIMIZATION RESULTS 20
C. RESULTS OF THE HEURISTIC APPROACH 29
D. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 37
V. USING BOTH OPTIMIZATION AND
HEURISTIC APPROACHES 39
A. USING THE HEURISTIC SOLUTION AS A BOUND ... 39
B CONCLUSIONS 42
C RECOMMENDATIONS 42
LIST OF REFERENCES 43
INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST 45
VI
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