Recruit or inservice testing should measure whether the student has obtained sufficient skills and knowledge to perform police duties effectively. Fair tests must be carefully planned, reliable (consistently measure what is intended), and valid (accurately measure what is intended). To ensure that the test reflects the course material, instructional objectives for each instruction topic must be developed. The instructor should develop a chart that equates the amount of time spent on a particular topic to the number of test questions pertaining to that topic. Test questions must also reflect the type of cognitive learning required to perform the duties for which the student is being trained. The format for test questions (true-false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, matching, or essay) is usually determined by ease of administration and scoring and its capacity to thwart passing by guessing. Because of its advantages, the multiple-choice test is most often used by law enforcement instructors. Writing questions that are clear and concise is crucial, since answers based on a misreading of the question do not reflect the student's true knowledge. Most tests should be administered when the students are fresh, so fatigue does not interfere with performance. Immediately after the test, students should be told the correct answers. 2 figures and 5 footnotes.