Abstract
Abstract : Most colleges administer mathematics placement exams to place students into their first mathematics course. According to Hassett, Downs, and Jenkins (1992), the importance of these placement exams is not communicated to the students. As a consequence, students do not prepare for the exams and may be forced to register for courses they had already passed at a different institution. In this study, we analyze the effect of mailing a practice algebra and trigonometry placement exam with solutions to all incoming first year students. Our results indicate that a small amount of study resulted in significantly higher placement exam scores (p = 0) and reduced enrollment in remedial mathematics. The practice placement exam did not inflate placement exam scores -- students who took the practice placement exam were as successful in Calculus I as those who did not take the practice placement exam.
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