Identification method for electrochemical test strips

A method of making a plurality of test strips, wherein said test strips are part of a base test strip group or a modified test strip group distinguishable from the base group comprising:

• creating a plurality of base test strips, each base test strip having a region of electrically conductive material, a plurality of accessible contact points connected to one another by said electrically conductive material, and one end configured for insertion into a testing apparatus, and assigning each of the plurality of base test strips to a lot of test strips;
• testing base test strips representative of a first lot of base test strips to determine whether the first lot of base test strips meets a specification;
• assigning the first lot of base test strips to a group based on meeting the specification or not meeting the specification;
• and
• modifying the first lot of base test strips assigned to the group to create a first modified test strip group by creating a full thickness notch that extends from the end configured for insertion into a testing apparatus into the region of electrically conductive material, wherein information about the first modified test strip group is conveyed by location, width, and length of the notch.