The purpose of this study is to assess how detrimental the effects of anxiety are in ESL language exams. A variety of recent studies have demonstrated significant differences in the emotive reactions of examinees to various language tests. And dozens of research reports in psychology literature identify both facilitating and debilitating results from test anxiety. But to date there have not been any published accounts of attempts to measure the impact of debilitating anxiety generated by ESL for foreign language tests. To assess the impact of anxiety, a battery of six different ESL examinations was administered to 114 EL1 students ranging in ability from beginning to advanced. These students were also administered the Alpert and Haber Achievement Anxiety Test. Performance on the most anxiety‐producing subtest is shown to be debilitating for the most anxious‐prone students. The study demonstrates that high anxiety‐producing ESL tests not only are psychologically debilitating but also are less valid and potentially biased in favor of students with low test anxiety.

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Tests with their many inexact measurements have been the concern of psychometricians for many years. The two issues of adequate precision and a common 'yardstick' for measuring persons of different abilities have been particularly  difficult to deal with. Computer-adaptive testing holds great promise in dealing with these and related issues in the field of testing. This paper describes several test variables of concern and explains the concept of computer-adaptive testing and its relationship to these variables.

A previously healthy 74-year-old Caucasian man with penicillin allergy was admitted with evolving headache, confusion, fever, and neck stiffness. Treatment for bacterial meningitis with dexamethasone and monotherapy ceftriaxone was started. The cerebrospinal fluid showed negative microscopy for bacteria, no bacterial growth, and negative polymerase chain reaction for bacterial DNA. The patient developed hydrocephalus on a second CT scan of the brain on the 5th day of admission. An external ventricular catheter was inserted and Listeria monocytogenes grew in the cerebrospinal fluid from the catheter. The patient had severe neurological sequelae. This case report emphasises the importance of covering empirically for Listeria monocytogenes in all patients with penicillin allergy with suspected bacterial meningitis. The case also shows that it is possible to have significant infection and inflammation even with negative microscopy, negative cultures, and negative broad range polymerase chain reaction in cases of Listeria meningitis. Follow-up spinal taps can be necessary to detect the presence of Listeria monocytogenes.