Best linear prediction (BLP) and penalized best linear prediction (PBLP) are techniques for combining sources of information to produce task scores, section scores, and composite test scores. The report examines issues to consider in operational implementation of BLP and PBLP in testing programs administered by ETS [Educational Testing Service].

The "GRE"® Psychology test is an achievement test that measures core knowledge in 12 content domains that represent the courses commonly offered at the undergraduate level. Currently, a total score and 2 subscores, experimental and social, are reported to test takers as well as graduate institutions. However, the American Psychological…

Despite limiting access to applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, the practice of using hard or soft Graduate Record Examination (GRE) cutoff scores in physics graduate program admissions is still a popular method for reducing the pool of applicants. The present study considers whether the undergraduate institutions of…

The report is the first systematic evaluation of the sentence equivalence item type introduced by the "GRE"® revised General Test. We adopt a validity framework to guide our investigation based on Kane's approach to validation whereby a hierarchy of inferences that should be documented to support score meaning and interpretation is…

In this research, we investigated the feasibility of implementing the "e-rater"® scoring engine as a check score in place of all-human scoring for the "Graduate Record Examinations"® ("GRE"®) revised General Test (rGRE) Analytical Writing measure. This report provides the scientific basis for the use of e-rater as a…

Automated scoring models for the "e-rater"® scoring engine were built and evaluated for the "GRE"® argument and issue-writing tasks. Prompt-specific, generic, and generic with prompt-specific intercept scoring models were built and evaluation statistics such as weighted kappas, Pearson correlations, standardized difference in…

This study was conducted at a research-extensive public university in the southeastern United States. It examined the retention and completion of master's degree students across numerous disciplines. Results were derived from a series of descriptive statistics, T-tests, and a series of binary logistic regression models. The findings from binary…

Because publicized minimum criteria for graduate school admission are rarely sufficient to gain entrance to the school of one's choice, a study was undertaken to estimate the actual admission standards to graduate school. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores accounted for about twice as much variance as grade point average. (Author/MLW)

Operational procedures for the Graduate Record Examinations Validity Study Service are reviewed, with emphasis on the problem of frequent occurrence of negative coefficients in the fitted within-department regressions obtained by the empirical Bayes method of H. I. Braun and D. Jones (1985). Several alterations of the operational procedures are…

The feasibility of using item response theory (IRT) as a psychometric model for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Aptitude Test was addressed by assessing the reasonableness of the assumptions of item response theory for GRE item types and examinee populations. Items from four forms and four administrations of the GRE Aptitude Test were…

The present study examined and evaluated the application of linear policy-capturing models to the real-world decision task of graduate admissions. Utility of the policy-capturing models was great enough to be of practical significance, and least-squares weights showed no predictive advantage over equal weights. (Author/CTM)

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an automated system for predicting the acceptability status of candidate reading-comprehension stimuli extracted from a database of journal and magazine articles. The system uses a combination of classification and regression techniques to predict the probability that a given…

"Item models" (LaDuca, Staples, Templeton, & Holzman, 1986) are classes from which it is possible to generate/produce items that are equivalent/isomorphic to other items from the same model (e.g., Bejar, 1996; Bejar, 2002). They have the potential to produce large number of high-quality items at reduced cost. This paper introduces…

Convergent validity of expert-systems scores for 4 complex constructed-response mathematical formats was assessed for 249 examinees from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test in June 1989. The hypothesized five-factor model fit the data well, but an alternative with two dimensions (GRE-quantitative and constructed-response)…

Data from graduate student applications at a large Western university were used to determine which factors were the best predictors of success in graduate school, as defined by cumulative graduate grade point average. Two statistical models were employed and compared: artificial neural networking and simultaneous multiple regression. Both models…