Date of Award:

5-1955

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Arden N. Frandsen

Committee

Arden N. Frandsen

Abstract

It is the standard practice in colleges and universities to administer to all entering students a battery of tests which are designed to measure the aptitude and ability of students. Each institution uses in its test battery those tests which are best suited to its particular needs, but in the main they consist of measures of general mental ability, the ability to understand and use the English language and the ability to understand and to use mathematical symbols. These tests are available to the institution through companies which construct and standardize tests of all kinds. In addition to these tests, others may be constructed by the departments of an institution and validated for use in that department or school. The test battery of the Utah State Agricultural College consists of a combination of these two types. The English examination is the Educational Testing Service Cooperative English test Battery, the Mathematics test is a department constructed test, originally designed and constructed by Dr. Arden N. Frandsen.

The original form of the test is constructed as an expendable booklet in which the student computes the answer and enters it in a space provided. The original form was used as part of the Utah State Agricultural College entrance examination until 1947. At that time David Stone, William Dobson and Glenn Hawkes revised the test into a multiple-choice form. In revising the test, the authors used the same problems as those in the original form. To this they added as five possible answers the correct answer and the four most frequently given wrong answers for each item. The theory behind the revision was to provide a test which would be more economical, easier to score and in harmony with the new trend in test construction.

It is the scope of this paper to present some of the history of the Utah State Agricultural College Mathematics test, its construction, validation and revision, more specifically, to compare the original and revised editions as to predictive value.

Checksum

9616fc17fa307d0320636be750742ca3

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .