Standardized Tests 101.com

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This course is designed to provide students do well on various standardized tests.

Objective: Become familiar with the test layouts, question types, etc.

Standardized testing is a tool used to measure aptitude or knowledge across a multitude of schools or contexts. Standardized tests include tests like the SATs (for college admissions), GMATs (for MBA school admissions), MCATs (for medical school admissions), LSATs (for law school admissions), GREs (for most graduate school programs other than MBA, law, and medical) and others. These tests usually include mostly multiple-choice and true-false questions, as well as a writing test that asks test-takers to compose essays on presented topics.

The purpose of standardized tests is to compare the abilities and skills of students from different schools and backgrounds. For instance, admissions committees will look at an applicant’s grade-point average, but one school might give students As much more easily or present easier course material than another school. Therefore, how can an admissions committee accurately compare students from different schools by simply looking at their grades? By measuring students on the same skills and knowledge, standardized tests give admissions committees a more objective assessment of students’ potential performance at the schools to which they are applying. Some argue that standardized tests only reinforce cultural bias in education, but these tests nonetheless provide a valuable tool for admissions committees.

Standardized tests are usually administered to people at similar ages or stages of development. For instance, the SATs are given to high school seniors, and the GMATs are most often taken by college juniors and seniors.

The value of standardized test scores is based on the ratio of correct to incorrect answers. So, for example, if all test-takers answer a particular question correctly or incorrectly, that question doesn’t have any value in comparing test-takers to each other. These tests are meaningful only if they present a comparison of individual scores to a norm group. For this reason, most of these tests also place scores in a percentile rank, indicating how that score compared to everyone else who took that particular administration of the test.