This article describes how a Brier score analysis can be used as an evaluative tool to estimate the predictive accuracy of a course placement policy that was established based on professional or subjective judgment. The policy being evaluated uses the score received on the mathematics portion of the SAT examination as the primary mechanism to…

Colleges' early decision (ED) admission policies require accepted students to commit to attend the school without comparing outside options. With data from two liberal arts schools we find evidence that students with higher willingness and ability to pay and lower measured ability levels are more likely to apply ED. Applying ED raises the…

The purpose of this study is to apply the attribute hierarchy method (AHM) to a subset of SAT critical reading items and illustrate how the method can be used to promote cognitive diagnostic inferences. The AHM is a psychometric procedure for classifying examinees' test item responses into a set of attribute mastery patterns associated with…

Appropriateness indexes (statistical formulas) for detecting suspiciously high or low scores on aptitude tests were presented, based on a simulation of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) with 3,000 simulated scores--2,800 normal and 200 suspicious. The traditional index--marginal probability--uses a model for the normal examinee's test-taking…