The matter of removing one or more items from a subtest is discussed in the previous topic.  As mentioned there, the quickest way to exclude a single item from a subtest is probably to use a single *mws card.  For example, the following CCs line will see that the item resident in column 37 of the Data sheet is eliminated from its subtest:

 

*mws c37, *

 

A new CCs card, or line, has been added to ease the task of excluding multiple items.  Its format is identical to that of the *col card.

 

The following CCs line will remove, or exclude, the item in column 37:

 

*exc (c37)

 

Other examples of the use of this card:

 

*exc (c12-c14, c42)

 

Removes the items found in columns 12, 13, 14, and 42.

 

*exc (c12, c13, c14, c42)

 

Also removes the items found in columns 12, 13, 14, and 42.

 

*exc (c17, c21-c25, c27, c35-c40)

 

Will exclude the items in columns 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40.

 

Both the *mws and *exc lines may be used to remove items from a subtest, as shown in the example below:

 

*mws c17, *

*mws c27, *

*exc (c21-c25, c35-c40)

 

The three lines above will see that the items in columns 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40 are excluded from the subtest.

 

To see how the *exc card can ease the process of removing items from a subtest, look at the following example:

 

 

The example above shows two ways to have 12 items excluded from a 40-item subtest.

 

The first way involves the use of multiple *mws cards; the second way uses a single *exc card.  (There are other ways to exclude items: refer to the previous topic for more details.)