In contrast to finding a known instrument, you may want to find a test, instrument, survey, etc. that helps you gather data or information for a particular variable or area of study, or in other words, you are looking for a test that can help you evaluate an area and you are not sure what tests/instruments are available. Once again you can use Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print, Health & Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI), and the Educational Testing Services (ETS) Test Collection. You could also look in other databases such as Education Resource and Information Center (ERIC) and PsycINFO.

There are a number of ways to do this task. One option is to search in the database using terms or keywords that characterize the variable or area you want to evaluate. You can search for those terms in a number of fields. Different databases provide a number of different fields in which to search as illustrated below for HaPI and MMY. You could search for the terms reading and elementary school in All Text Fields and/or Test Name. You would obtain different results because Test Name is more focused or limited than All Text Fields.

A second option is to use the Indexes that come with the databases and look for your terms to see if they are index terms. Here is a screenshot of possible indexes to use in HaPI. One option is to see if Reading is in the Measure Index.