The thick-adherend lap shear test with the KGR-1 extensometer in the determination of in situ adhesive shear properties in investigated. Test specimens cut from a single aluminium panel are tested and evaluated using three different experimental methods: KGR-1 extensometer, moire interferometry and strain gages. Load eccentricity due to an inappropriate loading is observed in the present study and its effect is also investigated using the strain gages and moire interferometry. The full-field displacement data and non uniform adhesive shear strain distributions are determined through the moire experiment. The results suggest that a correction factor should be introduced to account for the non uniformity of the adhesive strain (stress) distribution in order to obtain an accurate adhesive shear modulus. The consistency of the adhesive shear modulus determined from these different methods indicates that the KGR-1 extensometer measurement can provide a reasonable means of determining adhesive shear properties, provided the test specimens are loaded properly.