How do tests and self‐reports compare as predictors of academic performance? Do tests add to the predictability from self‐reports? College seniors in eight sections of an evaluation course were administered the Quantitative Evaluative Device, the Cooperative English Test: Reading Comprehension, the Concept Mastery Test, and two questionnaires concerning past academic performance, student‐estimated abilities, and reading habits. The criteria were composite test scores and letter grades. The best predictors were two self‐reported variables, GPA and grade in an educational psychology course, and a test variable, the QED. Multiple Rs using questionnaire data for the predictors were increased slightly by adding the test scores, but on cross‐validation the rs for the two predictor sets were essentially identical. The utility of the tests, then, was not supported either by zero‐order correlations or by cross‐validated increments. Therefore an investigator is reminded at least to include self‐report measures in his set of predictors.
Abstract. The assumption that students entering medical school have successfully developed adequate reading skills was tested empirically in a limited setting. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was administered to 268 entering freshmen medical students at the Albany Medical College. Preliminary results indicated that this assumption was violated in an unexpected number of cases as evidenced by substandard performance on the test. Examination of student records revealed that deficiencies in reading skills may be contributing to academic failures in medical school. Further research in this area was encouraged not only to enhance student success but ultimately to improve the quality of medical education itself.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.