Improving Measurement for Graduate Admissions

Abstract

In this study we examined alternative item types and section configurations for improving the discriminant and convergent validity of the GRE General Test. A computer‐based test of reasoning items and a generating‐explanations measure was administered to a sample of 388 examinees who previously had taken the General Test. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that three dimensions of reasoning—verbal, analytical, and quantitative—and a fourth dimension of verbal fluency based on the generating‐explanations task could be distinguished. Notably, generating explanations was as distinct from new variations of reasoning items as it was from verbal and quantitative reasoning. In the full sample, this differentiation was evident in relation to such external criteria as undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), self‐reported accomplishments, and a measure of ideational fluency, with generating explanations relating uniquely to aesthetic and linguistic accomplishments and to ideational fluency. For the subset of participants with undergraduate majors in the humanities and social sciences, generating explanations added to the relationship with UGPA over that contributed by the General Test.