What are pretest items in the ARE?

• A. Items that count toward the score and affect division results.
• B. Optional items that you may answer if you have time.
• C. Items that do not count toward the score, randomly scattered throughout each exam division.
• D. Items used for practice only and are never scored.

Answer: (C)

Pretest items are questions used by the test makers to evaluate how new questions perform in a live testing environment. They do not count toward your final score and are mixed in with the scored items in each division, so you can’t tell which ones are pretests. This random placement lets the exam team gather data on item difficulty and quality to build a reliable set of future questions. Your score comes from the items that are scored, not these experimental ones. The other options don’t fit because all items in a division are part of the attempt, and the pretest questions are not simply optional or never used for scoring.