The paper argues that contemporary test validity theory places the consequences of testing on the lives of all college applicants at the back of the test validation argument. It introduces the notion of test efficacy as a process to gather evidence on claims on consequences of testing on all college applicants that can be traced back to validity.…

First-time entrants to tertiary education are required to make interconnected decisions about their field of study, the fees they will pay and the application requirements they are prepared to face. Their choice of programme and institution will be influenced by the costs and entry criteria. The decisions they make about what to study and where…

The present study is the first to examine the computation estimation skills of dyscalculics versus controls using the estimation comparison task. In this task, participants judged whether an estimated answer to a multidigit multiplication problem was larger or smaller than a given reference number. While dyscalculics were less accurate than…

The current criterion for acceptance to universities in Israel is based on psychometric testing that presents a strong barrier for acceptance of students of Ethiopian origin (SEO) to the universities. Based on the sociocultural theories of Vygotsky and Feuerstein, we suggest an intervention aimed at integrating SEO, considered to be…

Many medical schools have adopted multiple mini-interviews (MMI) as an advanced selection tool. MMIs are expensive and used to test only a few dozen candidates per day, making it infeasible to develop a different test version for each test administration. Therefore, some items are reused both within and across years. This study investigated the…

Purpose: Aspects of intellectual competence would not be sufficient for quality teaching that requires a mix of intellectual and personal qualities. The purpose of this paper was to elicit personal attributes of teachers' college applicants. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative case study consisted of 99 participants aged 20-24 years of…

The paper examines whether college application behavior assists members of privileged social groups to preserve their advantages in diversified higher education systems. The study is based on a survey conducted in Israel in 1999 on a sample of 4,061 freshmen in the research universities and the academic colleges, which are often perceived as the…

Developed a method for evaluating cross-lingual equating and applied it to 12 forms of the Psychometric Entrance Test for admission to Israeli universities, a test translated from Hebrew into five languages. Discusses significance of the results and the differences between the two target-languages. (SLD)

Examined data from 96 college students and applicants who applied for career counseling. Found that the predictions of the hierarchical model for the structure of occupations regarding the relative proximity between occupational fields were more adequate than were those of the circular model. (NB)

Investigated relationship between vocational interests and location of an ideal occupation in the perceived occupational structure of career counselees. Career counselees (N=96) completed the RAMAK vocational interest inventory. Intrasubject analyses indicated the preferences for occupational fields as measured by the interest inventory reflected…

Focused on whether differential item functioning (DIF) is related to item type in translated test items and the causes of DIF using data from an Israeli college entrance test in Hebrew and a Russian translation. Results from 24,304 college applicants indicate that 34% of items functioned differently across items. (SLD)

In recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of university applicants requesting special accommodations for university entrance exams. The Israeli National Institute for Testing and Evaluation (NITE) administers a Psychometric Entrance Test (comparable to the Scholastic Assessment Test in the United States) to assist universities…

Using data on applicants to an Israeli university, researchers examined whether high school course-taking patterns affected gender segregation in higher education. Women were underrepresented among applicants to mathematics-related studies. Mathematical background in high school effectively narrowed the gender gap in applying to selective and…

Equating error was estimated using the same test with three linear equating methods in three paradigms--single-link equating; circular equating through a chain; and pseudo-circular equating, in which a test is equated to itself through equating chains. Over 31,000 Psychometric Entrance Test scores of college applicants in Israel were analyzed.…

This study investigated the concurrent and construct validity of an alternative group assessment procedure. The study assessed performance and personal traits of teacher education students and compared group assessment ratings to faculty evaluations. Results established the group assessment procedure's construct and concurrent validity. (SM)