To determine the effects on test performance and test validity of releasing essay topics before an examination, 300 prospective graduate students wrote essays on a released and an unreleased topic. Analyses did not reveal any statistically significant effect of topic release. (SLD)

Gathered judgments of 253 minority group students and 268 other college students who took the Graduate Record Examination about essay prompts being considered for use in a graduate writing test. Identified several features that underlie examinee perceptions of essay prompts, especially the extent to which prompts allow examinees to draw on their…

Approximately 300 prospective graduate students each wrote two essays for the Graduate Record Examinations in 40-minute and 60-minute time periods. Analysis revealed that performance was, on average, significantly better with the 60-minute limit. There was no interaction between self-described test-taking style (fast versus slow) and time limits.…

A study was undertaken to determine the effects on essay scores of intermingling handwritten and word-processed versions of student essays. A sample of 32 examinees, each of whom had produced both a handwritten and a word-processed essay, was drawn from a larger group who had participated in a pilot study of item types for The Praxis Series:…

The personal statement as an indicator of writing skill was evaluated by comparing personal statements with standardized essay measures of writing ability for 475 graduate students. Correlations of the essay and the personal statement with nontest indicators of writing skill indicate that the traditional essay was more highly related to nearly all…

Studied how performance on a standardized writing assessment might influence graduate admissions decisions if, along with test scores, test takers' essays were made available to admissions committees. Results for 27 test takers(2 essays each) suggest that the availability of examinee essays would have little, if any, influence on admissions…

A small-scale simulation investigated the impact of making essay topics available to test takers before the test. Results with 11 college students reveal little effect of the prepublished topic. Implications for teacher licensure examinations are discussed with reference to the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers being…