Validation of the Graduate Record Examinations and the Miller Analogies Test in a Doctoral Program in Education

Abstract

In view of previous inconclusive studies and often crude criteria, the authors studied the predictive validity of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Aptitude Test and the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) in a doctoral program in Education. Four rather discriminating criterion variables derived from an analytic exercise and course grades in statistics and research were used. Twenty-five classes in a core course over a nine-year span provided subjects (N = 348) for the data analyses. The highest first-order correlations between GRE scores and criterion measures ran about .5 whereas those for the MAT were very low. Considering both the restriction in range of scores and the fact that a combination of predictors through multiple regression procedures yielded still higher correlations than those afforded by single prediction, the investigators concluded that the GRE Aptitude Test was useful in this program, but not the MAT.