Mathematical programming has been widely used by professionals in testing agencies as a tool to automatically construct equivalent test forms. This study introduces the linear programming capabilities (modeling language plus solvers) of SAS Operations Research as a platform to rigorously engineer tests on specifications in an automated manner. To that end, real items from a medical licensing test are used to demonstrate the simultaneous assembly of multiple parallel test forms under two separate linear programming scenarios: (a) constraint satisfaction (one problem) and (b) combinatorial optimization (three problems). In the four problems from the two scenarios, the forms are assembled subjected to various content and psychometric constraints. Assembled forms are next assessed using psychometric methods to ensure equivalence about all test specifications. Results from this study support SAS as a reliable and easy-to-implement platform for form assembly. Annotated codes are provided to promote further research and operational work in this area.

中文翻译：

---

在医学许可考试中使用SAS Operations Research软件进行自动测试组装

数学编程已被测试机构的专业人员广泛用作自动构建等效测试表格的工具。这项研究介绍了SAS Operations Research的线性编程功能（建模语言加求解器），该平台是一种以自动化方式严格设计规格测试的平台。为此，来自医疗许可测试的真实项目用于演示在两个单独的线性编程方案下同时组装多个并行测试表格：（a）约束满足（一个问题）和（b）组合优化（三个问题）。在这两种情况下的四个问题中，表格的组装受到各种内容和心理测验的约束。接下来，使用心理计量学方法评估组装好的表格，以确保所有测试规范的等效性。这项研究的结果支持SAS作为一种可靠且易于实现的表格组装平台。提供了带注释的代码，以促进该领域的进一步研究和运营工作。