With respect to the selection of black students for college admission, traditional criteria, such as SAT scores and high school grade point average, have been shown not to be valid predictors of future college performance. Therefore, their continued use raises the question of whether this is a measurement problem or an instance of racism. (EH)

The available objective evidence suggests that the accuracy of predicting which students will succeed in a particular graduate school is often no better than modest, especially if such predictions are based only upon a test or a grade record. Taken together these two types of predictors do a reasonably good job, considering the restricted range of…

The relationship between the new Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the criterion of grades achieved in the freshman year for the entering class of 1978 was studied. From this analysis, a new index was created and used in screening the entering class of 1979 at the University of California, Irvine. (MLW)

The predictive and incremental validity of the New Medical College Admission Test (New MCAT) Science Problems Subtest was examined with a sample of over 165 medical students. Criterion measures were National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Part I (basic science) and Part II (clinical science) performance. The Science Problems subscore is derived…

Deans' letters of recommendation can be regarded as measuring instruments that are used in the selection process to evaluate and predict the future performance of residents and interns. This study demonstrates that the dean's letter can be a reliable and valid measure of medical student performance that correlates with performance in residency…

Arguments are set forth to encourage continued use of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) as supplementary information rather than as an exclusive criterion for selecting graduate candidates in English. The author predicts that the GRE will be increasingly used and will increasingly come to define and control undergraduate and graduate…

Correlations between popular admissions indicies, including Dental Admission Test scores and pre-dental grade point average, and numerous measures of student success, such as National Board scores and grades, were compared for recently-graduated students from two dental schools with substantially different selection ratios. While the differences…

An attempt to assess the validity of the personal interview in the selection of residents for the program in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, is reported. The data suggest that the residency interview may be of greater value to applicants than to selection committees. (Author/MLW)

Studies of the predictive validity of the Dental Admission Test have been reported, but none suggest how an admissions committee should assess the scores of applicants who take the test twice. Improvement on the test scores might compromise their utility for purposes of student selection. (Author/MLW)

Discusses increased numbers of undergraduate psychology majors and strategies to reduce them. Proposes a prediction model based on the grade point average of graduating psychology students. Concludes that student performance in introductory psychology courses may provide one predictive measure of later achievement. (CFR)

The Law School at North Carolina Central University faced the dual problem of improving student performance on the bar examination while maintaining a large percentage of black students. The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) was found to be the single best predictor of student performance on the bar examination. However, if only the students…

Assessment programs like the American College Test (ACT) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) continue to play an important role in the admission decisions of many colleges. In many cases, they also serve a meaningful counseling and guidance function for high schools and colleges. The data reported in this paper suggest that the two programs can…

Three alternative strategies for college selection, their associated cost and benefits are described in this study. These include a strict meritocratic procedure, a minority quota procedure and a disadvantaged quota procedure. The strict meritocratic procedure was operationalized in terms of predicted probability of success; the minority quota…

Some of the controversial issues involved in the use of objective tests by institutions of higher education, as this use affects the selection and attendance by members of minority groups, are reviewed. Admissions committees now rely on the ability of a test to predict students' performance at their institution to guide their selection. However,…