Abstract
Method of Adaptive testing (AT) is described, as a way of optimization of experimental evaluation of degraded materials, which are measured nondestructively, indirectly via a convenient physical process. The general AT is illustrated by a well-explored special case of magnetic adaptive testing (MAT) of strained steel. Degradation curves obtained from AT are regularly more sensitive and experimentally friendly than traditional descriptors of the used physical process itself. Any of the traditional descriptors of the physical process, being optimized for description of the process itself, is very probably not optimized for description of the investigated material degradation.