Today, numerous countries utilize unified methods and systematic standardized examinations such as national examinations as formal procedures to select qualified applicants for admission to higher education institutions since higher education is viewed as the major path and criterion to upward mobility. In Iran, the university entrance examination…

The present paper appraises a standardized test, the entrance exam of Iranian universities, known as "Konkur" that is administered annually as a means of gaining admission to higher education in Iran. This norm-referenced test is administered for students majoring in mathematics, experimental sciences, and humanities whose scores along…

As a part of a larger project, this study reports a large-scale investigation of the impacts of the Iranian National University Entrance Examination (INUEE) on Iranian high school students and their parents. For this purpose, in a mixed methods research design, 1350 high school students selected based on convenience sampling from three western…

The idea of sources other than the test-takers' knowledge leading to different results on high-stakes tests was the motif based on which the present investigation was initiated on the probable sources of unreliability of a test. For this purpose, the researchers went through a thorough literature review with the aim to identify the issues to be…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the vocabulary subsection of a high-stakes university entrance exam for Ph.D. programs using the argument-based approach. All the three different versions of the test administered in a period of five years and the responses of 12,500 test-takers were studied. The study focused on four…

This paper reports on an investigation of differential item functioning (DIF) in the Iranian Undergraduate University Entrance Special English Exam (IUUESEE) across four native language groups including the Azeri, the Persian, the Kurdish, and the Luri test takers via Rasch analysis. A total sample of 14,172 participants was selected for the…

The present study aims to examine gender differential item functioning (DIF) in the reading comprehension section of a high stakes test using cognitive diagnosis models. Based on the multiple-group generalized deterministic, noisy "and" gate (MG G-DINA) model, the Wald test and likelihood ratio test are used to detect DIF. The flagged…

This paper investigates admission procedures of Master of Arts programs of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL) in Iran in comparison with universities around the world. Along with a view of the centralised national MA TEFL entrance exam held in Iran during the past three decades, we investigated admission requirements for comparable…

Of the many possible institutional and individual factors bearing on test preparation, one is how individuals go about choosing their achievement goals. Yet, the literature on the relationship between the two phenomena remains slim. The objectives of this study are twofold. First, it explores the range of test preparation practices exercised by…

Estimating the difficulty of reading tests is critical in second language education and assessment. This study was aimed at examining various text features that might influence the difficulty level of a high-stakes reading comprehension test and predict test takers' scores. To this end, the responses provided by 17,900 test takers on the reading…

Though the emergence of standardized testing promoted classical approaches such as summative achievement tests, it brought about serious criticisms regarding the stakes of these tests and their consequences on different dimensions of education. Exploring these consequences attracted researchers' attention in education. A mass of studies are…

The purpose of the present study was two-fold: (a) First, it examined fairness of Special English Test (SET) of Iranian National University Entrance Exam (INUEE) by analyzing Differential Item Functioning (DIF) with reading comprehension section of this test (b) second, it explored test takers' attitudes towards possible sources of unfairness and…

Iranian National University Entrance Exam (INUEE) as a nationwide high-stakes test is held annually to screen Iranian high school graduates and admit them into higher education programs in universities. This high-stakes examination has a wide range of impacts on test takers as the primary stake-holders and the parents, teachers, and high school…

The University Entrance Exam (UEE) has an important impact on how math instructors teach mathematics to prepare students for this exam as well as how their students learn mathematics. Since the UEE is like a bridge between high school and university, its importance becomes twofold. However, research regarding this issue is very limited in…

This study measures the threshold level of depth of word knowledge in L2 incidental learning and reading comprehension. I administered the Word Associates Test (WAT; Read, 2004) to measure depth of word knowledge. Based on participants' scores on the WAT, they were divided into three proficiency groups: high proficiency (HP), intermediate…