The Influence of Test-Wiseness Upon Achievement

Wahlstrom, Merlin; Boersma, Frederic J.

doi:10.1177/001316446802800221

Cited by 33 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It has been suggested that if cues do exist, they occur more frequently on teacher-made tests than on publisher provided tests because published tests are constructed by individuals who have more training in this area (e.g., Dolly & Williams, 1986;Wahlstrom & Boersma, 1968). The results of this study are contrary to this contention.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 79%

“…It has been suggested that teacher-made tests contain more TW cues than norm-referenced tests or tests included with published textbooks because teachers are not "professional" test constructors (e.g., Dolly & Williams, 1986;Wahlstrom & Boersma, 1968). However, no studies were found that examined tests (both teacher-made and publisher-provided) typically used in junior and senior high schools (or elementary for that matter) for the existence of cues.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Nature and Extent of Test-Wiseness Cues in Seventh— and Tenth-Grade Classroom Tests

1991

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In the present study, 100 seventh-and tenth-grade tests across several content areas were examined for the presence of six types of test-wiseness cues. Questions addressed included: (a) What is the frequency of each type of cue, (b) is there a difference in the frequency of cued items between teacher-made and publisherprovided tests, (c) which type of item contains more cues, and (d) is there an increase in the likelihood of making a correct guess based on the use of existing cues? Analyses indicated approximately 75% of both types of tests contained cued items. The most frequent type of cue was length of option, followed by specific determiners. Increases in the likelihood of making a correct guess based on cue usage ranged from 8% to 19% depending on item format, Implications for test construction and teaching test-taking skills are discussed.Test-taking is a frequent occurrence in junior and senior high school classrooms. How well a student performs on tests is critical to success in those settings. Cuthbertson (1 979) noted that test scores account for over 60% of a student's grade in secondary classes. Too, the majority of tests taken in classrooms are objective in format and are typically teacher-made or publisher-provided chapter or unit tests (Aiken, 1987;Cuthbertson, 1979;Smith, 1982).While a test score may depend on a number of variables such as study time, prior knowledge of the information sampled by test items, or test-anxiety, one potential source of variation in test scores discussed frequently in the test and measurement literature is test-wiseness (TW). AThe authors wish to acknowledge Lewis Putnam of the University of Wisconsin-

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 79%

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confidence: 99%

The Nature and Extent of Test-Wiseness Cues in Seventh— and Tenth-Grade Classroom Tests

1991

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“…It could be argued that test-wiseness, or the tendency to follow others' responses as a test-taking strategy (Wahlstrom & Boersma, 1968), was occurring. However, students would not knowingly select incorrect responses if they were using copying as a strategy for selecting correct answers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conformity of responses among graduate students in an online environment

Beran

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Kaba

et al. 2015

The Internet and Higher Education

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“…Dunn and Goldstein (1959) were not able to establish a relationship between test-wiseness and intelligence. Wahlstrom and Boersma (1968) were able to demonstrate that students achieve higher scores on a criterion test following training in TW. Slakter, Koehler, and Hampton (1970) were able to establish that TW scores increase with grade level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%