Nontraditional Scoring of C-tests

In C-tests the hypothesis of items local independence is violated, which doesn't permit to consider them as real tests. It is suggested to determine the distances between separate C-test items (blanks) and to combine items into clusters. Weights, inversely proportional to the number of items in corresponding clusters, are assigned to items. As a result, the C-test structure becomes similar to the structure of classical tests, without violation of local independence hypothesis.