Recent calls for an increase in educational accountability in K-16 resulted in an uptick of low-stakes testing and, consequently, an increased need for ensuring that students' test scores are reliable and valid representations of their true ability. Focusing on accountability testing in higher education, the current program of research was…

The "Revised Learning Process Questionnaire" has been part of the development of a conceptual understanding of how students learn and what motivates them to engage in particular tasks. We obtained responses from 329 student volunteers at a mid-sized public university in the southeast USA. We first investigated whether the psychometric…

The author, an English professor, shares his experience in retaking the Graduate Record Examination in English literature, 25 years after he entered graduate school at the University of Virginia. He took the practice test instead of the "real" test, for a number of reasons. He wanted to be able to look over the questions afterward; to…

Universities are using standardized tests more and more as part of their accountability and assessment of student learning efforts. For the results of these tests to be useful in improving practices that lead to greater learning, they must be meaningful and specific to institutions. The researcher sought to determine how student characteristics,…

Test-taking strategies are important cognitive skills that strongly affect students' performance in tests. Using appropriate test-taking strategies improves students' achievement and grades, improves students' attitudes toward tests and reduces test anxiety. This results in improving test accuracy and validity. This study aimed at developing a…

Total scores from a series of classroom examinations compared with the order in which students completed the tests showed a relationship between completion time and test score. The first half of the students to finish scored significantly higher than the last half. (DS)

Explains how achievement tests developed to counteract the inexact nature of the assessment process. Points out common fallacies in interpreting test results and suggests how test results can be more constructively viewed. (DB)

The assumption that the more able student can recognize a correct answer in a multiple choice situation more quickly than the less able student leads to the prediction that higher scores would be associated with shorter test-taking time. Research investigating this prediction have yielded mixed results, suggesting the need to examine other…

I tested whether students' scores on the semester's first exam would change their reported use of textbook pedagogical aids during the course of the semester. I assessed 240 introductory psychology undergraduates early and late in the semester. The reported use of aids did not positively relate to student performance on any exams and showed only…

This study was designed to answer two questions: (1) Can cognitive strategies to increase testwiseness be taught? and (2) Can such strategies be generalized? Strategies presented were: length of option, middle range, similarity or oppositeness, and deduction. The answer to the first question was affirmative, and the second a qualified…

The stability of a two-factor model recently proposed for the Gibb Experimental Test of Testwiseness was assessed, using confirmatory factor analysis. Designed to measure seven specific testwiseness skills with 10 items per skill, Gibb's test has been shown to discriminate between persons trained and untrained in selected testwiseness skills. Such…

To examine faking on the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP), undergraduates were asked to respond to ATDP, once honestly and once in a manner reflecting the most positive attitude possible. Fake scores were significantly higher than honest scores, indicating a capacity for "saying the right thing" among students not…

The intervention in this study focused upon effective test taking, defined as the capacity to use acquired subject matter knowledge to achieve test scores consistent with an individual's knowledge level. This approach also emphasized self-assessment and self-directed learning. The procedure was employed in efforts to enhance a class of medical…

Several possible faking predictor scores were related to a continuously measured index of faking based on differences between faked and normal records and also to a dichotomous criterion of faking on the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS). Correlational analysis revealed that a total CPS summary score best indicated fakery. (Author/BJG)

Students instructed on research findings regarding answer changing made gains comparable to those of uninstructed students when changing item responses. Most changed their answers because they rethought or reread items. Counselors should not discourage students from changing answers. (Author)