Introduction: Premature withdrawal from university due to academic failure can present problems for students, families and educators. In an effort to widen the understanding regarding factors predicting academic success in higher institutions, prior academic achievement measures (preparatory school grade average point (GPA), aptitude test scores,…

"Differential Ability Scales," Second Edition (DAS-II; Elliott, 2007), was developed to measure the cognitive abilities of children and adolescents from age 2 years, 6 months to 17 years, 11 months. The test is designed to be individually administered, measuring general conceptual and reasoning ability ("g") as well as specific…

Various reasons may be advanced for conducting proficiency tests in academic literacy at higher education institutions. The Standardised Assessment Test for Access and Placement (SATAP) aims at determining the academic literacy skills that entry-level students should demonstrate as a predictor of their preparedness and success in tertiary…

The gains of scores on standardized intelligence tests (i.e., Flynn effect) have been the subject of extensive debate concerning their nature, causes, and implications. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether five intelligence tests are measurement invariant with respect to cohort. Measurement invariance implies that gains over the…

The present research investigated the relations among the measured and the expressed career decision-making difficulties in a sample of 299 young adults who intended to apply to college or university. As hypothesised, the correlations between career decision-making difficulties, as measured by the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire…

Medicine is a profession with a long history of research and high standards of methodological rigour and evidence-based decision making. These standards are being transferred into medical education. Universities are starting to collect high-quality data on their admissions systems. This has not been a short-term proposition. Medical courses are…

Reports on research project under auspices of the Oxford Educational Research Group to develop a German aptitude test to assess reliability of selection procedures for children who are allowed to study a second foreign language prior to fourth year options. Believes choices reflected in hypothetical options might encourage those pressing for…

Tested the factor structure of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities in preschool children (N=141). Found existence of Verbal factor and other Perceptual-Performance factor was confirmed and the Quantitative and Memory factors appear undifferentiated. Found subtests which make up the Motor scale do not constitute a single factor. (Author/ABL)

Reports on a study which attempted to determine differences between two different types of music curriculum. Specifically, the study compares the Kodaly Method with a more traditional curriculum. Concludes that music education based on the Kodaly Method started in early childhood is highly effective for the development of musical abilities. (RKM)

Three multiple-abilities batteries--the Comprehensive Ability Battery, Differential Aptitude Tests, and General Aptitude Test Battery--are briefly discussed, and results of a study involving cross-correlations of the tests in these batteries are presented. (Author/JKS)

The differentiation hypothesis suggests that the degree to which general intelligence ("g") pervades performance on mental tests is greater at lower ability levels. Analysis of data from Differential Aptitude Test results for over 10,500 Irish school children ages 14 to 17 years supports the differentiation hypothesis. (SLD)

Four approaches to prediction of learning success are described and discussed: the two-point model and the technique of multiple regression; the learning test model; the contingency model and the technique of time-series analysis; and the causally defined multipoint model and the technique of path analysis. (BW)

The dimensional structure of the 6 subtests of the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test was investigated using data from 10 versions of the test administered to approximately 50,000 examinees in 1984-88. The best alternative appeared to be a model with two orthogonal factors. (SLD)

Proposes a procedure for empirical initialization of the trait (theta) estimator in adaptive testing that is based on the statistical relation between theta and background variables known prior to test administration. Illustrates the procedure for an adaptive version of a test from the Dutch General Aptitude Battery. (SLD)