Aptitude Test Performance Research Articles

Study on aptitude test performance of secondary school students

The objective of the present study was to find out the aptitude test performance of secondary school students (grades IX and X). Purposive sample research design was adopted and 40 students were selected from govt schools in Koppaka, West Godvari district of Andhra Pradesh. Tamanna aptitude test scale developed by NCERT was applied. The findings of the study revealed that there was significant difference in level of aptitude among higher secondary students in terms of sex. The male students were having higher level of language aptitude and abstract reasoning compared to their counterparts whereas female students had higher verbal reasoning aptitude. Significant difference was also found in the aptitude of grade IX and X students. Grade X students had higher level aptitude in terms of language, abstract and verbal reasoning.

The UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools.

BackgroundMost UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four sub-scales, along with measures of educational attainment, individual and contextual socio-economic background factors, as predictors of performance in the first year of medical school training.MethodsA prospective study of 4,811 students in 12 UK medical schools taking the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008 as a part of the medical school application, for whom first year medical school examination results were available in 2008 to 2010.ResultsUKCAT scores and educational attainment measures (General Certificate of Education (GCE): A-levels, and so on; or Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): Scottish Highers, and so on) were significant predictors of outcome. UKCAT predicted outcome better in female students than male students, and better in mature than non-mature students. Incremental validity of UKCAT taking educational attainment into account was significant, but small. Medical school performance was also affected by sex (male students performing less well), ethnicity (non-White students performing less well), and a contextual measure of secondary schooling, students from secondary schools with greater average attainment at A-level (irrespective of public or private sector) performing less well. Multilevel modeling showed no differences between medical schools in predictive ability of the various measures. UKCAT sub-scales predicted similarly, except that Verbal Reasoning correlated positively with performance on Theory examinations, but negatively with Skills assessments.ConclusionsThis collaborative study in 12 medical schools shows the power of large-scale studies of medical education for answering previously unanswerable but important questions about medical student selection, education and training. UKCAT has predictive validity as a predictor of medical school outcome, particularly in mature applicants to medical school. UKCAT offers small but significant incremental validity which is operationally valuable where medical schools are making selection decisions based on incomplete measures of educational attainment. The study confirms the validity of using all the existing measures of educational attainment in full at the time of selection decision-making. Contextual measures provide little additional predictive value, except that students from high attaining secondary schools perform less well, an effect previously shown for UK universities in general.

The predictive validity of the aptitude test for the performance of students starting a medical curriculum

Selection of medical students varies between German- and French-speaking Swiss faculties. Geneva introduced an aptitude test in 2010, aimed at helping decision making among students. The test was compulsory: it had to be taken by those who intended to register for medical studies. But it was not selective: there was no performance threshold under which registration would have been denied. We followed 353 students who took the test in 2010, checked whether they confirmed their registration for medical studies and studied their performance during year 1 (selective year). The correlation between the aptitude test result and the academic performance during year 1 was 0.47 (n = 191), and weakened to 0.38 (n = 214) when including repetition of year 1. The failure to pass in year 2 or success were associated with the aptitude test results (p <0.001). Overall, 20% of the students succeeded after one year, 26% after a repeated year 1, and 53% failed and could not follow further medical studies. Though there was a clear association between the aptitude test and academic performance, students did not appear to take into account when making their career decisions the ability of the test (as implemented in Geneva, that is, compulsory but not selective) to predict their future performance in the medical programme. The test was withdrawn after the 2012 session, but a number of issues regarding the medical selection procedure remain to be addressed.

The UK clinical aptitude test and clinical course performance at Nottingham: a prospective cohort study

BackgroundThe UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) was introduced in 2006 as an additional tool for the selection of medical students. It tests mental ability in four distinct domains (Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reasoning, and Decision Analysis), and the results are available to students and admission panels in advance of the selection process. Our first study showed little evidence of any predictive validity for performance in the first two years of the Nottingham undergraduate course.The study objective was to determine whether the UKCAT scores had any predictive value for the later parts of the course, largely delivered via clinical placements.MethodsStudents entering the course in 2007 and who had taken the UKCAT were asked for permission to use their anonymised data in research. The UKCAT scores were incorporated into a database with routine pre-admission socio-demographics and subsequent course performance data. Correlation analysis was followed by hierarchical multivariate linear regression.ResultsThe original study group comprised 204/254 (80%) of the full entry cohort. With attrition over the five years of the course this fell to 185 (73%) by Year 5. The Verbal Reasoning score and the UKCAT Total score both demonstrated some univariate correlations with clinical knowledge marks, and slightly less with clinical skills. No parts of the UKCAT proved to be an independent predictor of clinical course marks, whereas prior attainment was a highly significant predictor (p <0.001).ConclusionsThis study of one cohort of Nottingham medical students showed that UKCAT scores at admission did not independently predict subsequent performance on the course. Whilst the test adds another dimension to the selection process, its fairness and validity in selecting promising students remains unproven, and requires wider investigation and debate by other schools.

Perfectionism and aptitude test performance: Testees who strive for perfection achieve better test results

Positive conceptions of perfectionism ( Stoeber & Otto, 2006) suggest that perfectionistic strivings may form part of a healthy pursuit of excellence and are associated with higher academic achievement and higher performance in laboratory tasks. To extend such research findings, the present study explores if perfectionistic strivings also predict aptitude test performance, while controlling for conscientious achievement striving. A sample of 111 participants, who completed measures of perfectionistic strivings and conscientious achievement striving, were given a set of aptitude tests comprising reasoning, speed, and work sample tests. Results showed that, while conscientious achievement striving was unrelated to performance in all tests, perfectionistic strivings predicted higher performance in both reasoning tests and work sample tests. Apart from providing further support for the view that perfectionistic strivings are a positive personality characteristic, the findings may also have relevance for applied psychology, as they suggest that testees who strive for perfection may achieve better results in aptitude tests which are routinely used in personnel selection and assessment.

Spatial abilities at different scales: Individual differences in aptitude-test performance and spatial-layout learning

Most psychometric tests of spatial ability are paper-and-pencil tasks at the “figural” scale of space, in that they involve inspecting, imagining or mentally transforming small shapes or manipulable objects. Environmental spatial tasks, such as wayfinding or learning the layout of a building or city, are carried out in larger spaces that surround the body and involve integration of the sequence of views that change with one's movement in the environment. In a correlational study, 221 participants were tested on psychometric measures of spatial abilities, spatial updating, verbal abilities and working memory. They also learned the layout of large environments from direct experience walking through a real environment, and via two different media: a desktop virtual environment (VE) and a videotape of a walk through an environment. In an exploratory factor analysis, measures of environmental learning from direct experience defined a separate factor from measures of learning based on VE and video media. In structural-equation models, small-scale spatial abilities predicted performance on the environmental-learning tasks, but were more predictive of learning from media than from direct experience. The results indicate that spatial abilities at different scales of space are partially but not totally dissociated. They specify the degree of overlap between small-scale and large-scale spatial abilities, inform theories of sex differences in these abilities, and provide new insights about what these abilities have in common and how they differ.

Some theoretical and practical implications of defining aptitude and reasoning in terms of each other

Stanovich &amp; West continue a history of norm-setting that began with deference to reasonable people's opinions, followed by adherence to probability theorems. They return to deference to reasonable people, with aptitude test performance substituting for reasonableness. This allows them to select independently among competing theories, but defines reasoning circularly in terms of aptitude, while aptitude is measured using reasoning.

Curricular Choice and the Differential Prediction of the Tertiary-Academic Performance of Men and Women

American research findings suggest that the tertiary-academic performance of men and women is predicted differentially in the sense that for the same high-school and aptitude-test performance, the actual grades achieved by women are higher than those predicted for them, and that for men, the situation is reversed. In the present study, three hierarchical regressions were performed to predict the extent of differential prediction for 329 men and 470 women who registered as first-year students at the University of the Orange Free State in 1992. With the two scales of the GSAT, matriculation symbol point total (MSPT), and a combination of these two predictors, gender (intercept) differences accounted for 4.55%, 2.36% and 2.18% of variance in accumulated mean curriculum percentage marks (MCPMs) over a three-year period. Next, hierarchical multiple regressions, in which the categorical variable of curricular choice was specified to enter the equation ahead of gender, were performed to predict the deviations of students' predicted MCPMs from their actual MCPMs (as indices of differential prediction). When cur-ricular choice was controlled through this semi-partial correlational approach, the percentage of these indices' variance that was explained by gender was reduced by between 53% and 78%. In the process the percentage of variance explained by gender was virtually wiped out: When the index of differential prediction was based on MSPT and a combination of the GSAT and MSPT, gender explained less than one per cent of the variance of these indices.

Test anxiety and aptitude test performance in an actual college admissions testing situation: Temporal considerations

This study systematically tests for time of testing (pre- vs post-test) as a possible moderator variable in the relationship between test anxiety and performance in a natural college admissions testing situation. On the basis of previous theorizing and research in the stress and psychological measurement literature it was hypothesized that anxiety will be more strongly related to test performance at time 2 (post-test) than at time 1 (pre-test). The present sample was composed of 378 Israeli student candidates who sat for scholastic aptitude university entrance exams centrally constructed and administered by the National Institute of Testing and Evaluation. On a random basis, 176 students were administered the test anxiety inventory in the anticipatory phase immediately prior to being tested, whereas 202 students were given the inventory immediately following aptitude testing. Whereas under pre-test anxiety measurement conditions only a negligible relationship was observed between performance and test anxiety, under post-test measurement conditions the latter two variables were observed to be moderately correlated. Overall, the data are more consistent with the assumptions of the cognitive deficit than the cognitive interference model and provide evidence for the moderating role of phase of testing and assessment of test anxiety in determining the magnitude of the anxiety-performance relationship. The results suggest that temporal factors be taken into consideration in assessing the nature and magnitude of the relationship between test anxiety and performance.

Does Test Anxiety Bias Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance by Gender and Sociocultural Group?

This study examines the commonly held contention that test anxiety may serve as a source of bias in the scholastic aptitude test performance of gender and ethnic minority groups. In addition, this study examines sex and sociocultural group differences in the level and pattern of test anxiety among Israeli college students. The sample was composed of 163 male and 198 female students sitting for scholastic aptitude tests routinely administered to all student applicants as part of their college admissions procedures. About 67% were of Western cultural extraction whereas the remainder were of Eastern extraction. Significant differences in text anxiety scores for males and females were observed, with greater sex group differentiation on the Emotionality than on the Worry scale. Test anxiety scores were not discernible by ethnicity or social class. Furthermore, test anxiety was not differentially related to aptitude test scores by sex or sociocultural group membership. Thus, this study lends little evidence to the common contention that test anxiety differentially debilitates the aptitude test scores of females and ethnic minority student candidates.

Does Test Anxiety Bias Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance by Gender and Sociocultural Group?

Does Test Anxiety Bias Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance by Gender and Sociocultural Group?

Patterns of change in scholastic aptitude test performance among academically talented adolescents

The Schalastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of 640 gifted adolescents attending an academic summer residential program were analyzed. Of special interest were the scores of 169 (26.4%) students who had taken the test more than once. Average test‐ retest score gains were large — 89.8 points on the math, and 70.2 points on the verbal portions of the SAT. Growth seemed largely compensatory, with greater achieved scores in their initial area of weakness. Nevertheless, students maintained greater achieved scores in their initial area of strength, and maintained their rank ordering among their peers over repeated test administrations. Implications for targeted educational programs are discussed.

On State SAT Research: A Response to Wainer

The issues of how effective schools are in promoting educational quality and the extent to which schools can be held accountable in this regard have prompted efforts to ferret out the different factors tied to test performance at the aggregate level. Our research (Powell & Steelman, 1984) represented the first major analysis of the factors linked to state differences in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) performance. Using recently released and previously unexploited data on SAT scores provided by the College Board, we examined state and regional variations in average SAT score as a function of several compositional and structural characteristics. Wainer (1986) raises a number of concerns about existing research on state variation in SAT performance. Indeed, he comes perilously close to dismissing such studies as worthless unless several stringent, perhaps unrealistic, conditions are satisfied. We respond here to his criticisms.' The first alleged pitfall that disturbs Wainer about our work is that the model we tested is neither explicit nor specified. It is possible that Wainer arrives at this mistaken impression because of the differences between the jargon of his field (educational statistics) and that of ours (sociology). He recommends that we distinguish between background and treatment variables. We do so, calling them instead compositional and structural variables, respectively. Consequently, Wainer's comments about our research attest more to the need for a common

GENDER AND CULTURE INTERACTION EFFECTS ON SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST PERFORMANCE: SOME ISRAELI FINDINGS

The major aim of this study was to assess the degree of interaction between gender and cultural group background in determining scholastic aptitude test attainment among college student candidates. The analyses were based on the college entrance aptitude test scores of 1778 Jewish and 1017 Arab student candidates applying for admission to a major Israeli university. A Manova of the subtest scores revealed significant main effects for both culture and gender and a significant gender × culture interaction effect. Separate Anovas for each of the individual subtests show significant gender × culture interaction effects for both the Mathematical and Figural Reasoning subtests, with a larger gender group differential ‐ in favor of the males ‐ among Jews than among Arabs. The interaction effect was attributed, in part, to two complementary culture‐specific factors, namely: (a) the positive self‐selection of Arab female college candidates of relatively high scholastic ability, thus serving to narrow the gender gap in the Arab group; (b) the varied opportunities for advanced technical training, enrichment and experience available mainly to Jewish males during their period of compulsorly military service, serving to enhance the gender gap in the Jewish group. In sum, the data suggest that culture may serve as an important moderator variable in determining the size of gender group differences in scholastic aptitude test attainment.

Relationships of Graduation Requirements and Course Offerings to Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance of Seniors in High Schools

AbstractA study was conducted to investigate the relationships of two school-level curriculum variables on the Scholastic Aptitude Test performance of seniors in high school. The curriculum variables were (a) the number of (Carnegie) units in English and mathematics required for high school graduation, and (b) the number of courses a school offers in various subject areas. A stratified random sampling of 150 comprehensive high schools was drawn from a southeastern state. Data were gathered from counselors and records maintained by the state’s Department of Education. SAT verbal and mathematics means for each school were compiled. Several school-level covariates were identified for incorporation into the analysis. Results indicated that the number of English units and mathematics units do not bear a statistically significant relationship with SAT performance. Likewise, the number of course offerings in 10 major subject areas did not bear a statistically significant relationship with SAT performance.

The Effects of Past Computer Experience on Computerized Aptitude Test Performance

This study investigated the effects of past computer experience on the computerized aptitude test performance of college students. Subjects were 92 undergraduates. All subjects completed an arithmetic reasoning test by computer and a Computer Experience Questionnaire. Past computer experience did account for a significant amount of variance on the arithmetic reasoning test. Suggestions regarding the future use of computerized aptitude tests are given.

Sex differences in scholastic aptitude: The Israeli scene

The major goal of the present study is two-fold: (a) To assess the direction, magnitude and profile of sex differences in scholastic aptitude test performance among Israeli college student candidates and (b) to test for possible sex bias in the construct validity of aptitude test scores. The analyses are based on the college admissions aptitude test scores of 1088 female and 690 male college candidates, applying for admissions to a major Israeli campus. On the whole, the data are consistent with much previous research, generated mainly from the American scene, showing small but consistent sex differences in favor of male examinees for the test as a whole and for the quantitative subscale, in particular. Also, the sex difference profiles for varying ethnic groups in the sample are surprisingly similar. Furthermore, our data show little evidence for differential construct validity of ability test scores by gender. On the whole, our data lend a greater degree of generality and cross-cultural validity to the bulk of previous research negating the sex bias contention and pointing to negligible gender differences in scholastic aptitude.

Differences in Memory Retrieval: A Construct Validity Investigation

Long-term memory retrieval efficiency was investigated as a potential underlying source of individual and developmental differences in cognitive functioning. Fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and college-aged subjects participated in a task using the Posner letter-matching paradigm. Letter pairs were presented simultaneously under physical-match and name-match instruction conditions. Reaction times were used to estimate parameters of long-term memory retrieval efficiency, basic encoding, decision, and response time, and name and physical output interference. Psychometric tests of verbal and spatial ability were included to assess convergent and discriminant validity of hypothesized relationships between aptitude test performance and basic cognitive processes. Developmental differences were observed in most but not all of the processing variables. Individual difference analyses indicated that less confounded estimates of processing parameters were not systematically related to verbal ability at any age level. Basic encoding and response speed was the most consistent correlate of spatial ability. The results suggest difficulties in previous interpretations of NIPI-verbal ability relationships. The study of cognitive processes in interaction and embedded in meaningful tasks is discussed.

The effect of variations in answer‐sheet format on aptitude test performance

Three different answer sheets were used in the administration of the General Aptitude Test Battery to groups of young adults (n = 302). The answer sheets, designed for use with different brands of Optical Mark Reader, varied in the shape of the response space. A two‐factor, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between subtests and type of answer sheet. Further analyses showed that performance on ‘speed’ tests was affected by the format of answer sheet used, whereas performance on mainly ‘power’ tests was not. The implications of the results for testing practice are discussed.

Sex Differences in Quantitative SAT Performance: New Evidence on the Differential Coursework Hypothesis

Recent research has questioned socialization explanations for sex differences in mathematics performance. In particular, the hypothesis that differences in the details of males’ and females’ high school programs are responsible for the sizable average difference between the sexes in quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) performance has been challenged in a recent study by Benbow and Stanley (1980) . This research, however, considered sex-linked coursework differences only indirectly and was based on the experiences of an unusual sample of gifted youth. Using a more broadly representative sample, we provide a direct test of the hypothesis that the sex difference in quantitative SAT performance may be due to differences in the pattern of quantitative coursework taken by males and females in high school. We find that the male-female gap in SAT-M performance shrinks considerably when sex differences in quantitative high school coursework are controlled. These findings suggest that increasing females’ rates of enrollment in high level mathematics courses would greatly reduce the sex difference in quantitative SAT performance and that it is premature to reject socialization and experiential explanations for the male-female gap in levels of quantitative performance.