Book excerpt: McDonald's The Nurse Educator's Guide to Assessing Learning Outcomes, Fifth Edition is a comprehensive guide for nurse educators that covers the assessment of critical thinking, the development of learning objectives, and the creation of tests, including detailed tips for writing many kinds of individual test items. This unique resource also covers the analysis of test reliability. Examples of effective and ineffective test items are included throughout to help faculty and nurse educators deepen their understanding of how to create effective tests and assess student learning. The updated Fifth Edition features two new chapters dedicated to the NextGen NCLEX to prepare faculty to develop questions for their students, addressing the move from critical thinking to clinical judgment.