The present report overseen by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) on behalf of the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency as part of the contract for the implementation of the European Digital Education Hub, is the third report in a series…

The role of standardized tests in general and college admission tests in particular is a hot topic for educators, administrators and others evaluating the outcomes of educational institutions. The importance of the test scores for both students and institutions is acknowledged, and the test preparation industry has spawned into a multi-billion…

The PhD viva has been described as mysterious (Burnham 1994; Morley et al. 2002), unpredictable (Rugg & Petre 2004) and potentially frightening for students (Delamont et al. 2004), with its form and duration a function of the predilections of individual examiners as well as a function of differences across disciplines. Despite its myriad…

Howard University School of Law had a problem, and school officials knew it. Over a 20-year period, 40 percent of its graduates who took the Maryland bar exam failed it on their first try. During the next 24 months--the time frame required to determine its "eventual pass rate"--almost 90 percent of the students did pass. What they did…

This discussion paper represents one of the National Association for College Admission Counseling's (NACAC's) first post-Testing Commission steps in advancing the knowledge base and dialogue about test preparation. It describes various types of test preparation programs and summarizes the existing academic research on the effects of test…

The authors review criticisms commonly leveled against cognitively loaded tests used for employment and higher education admissions decisions, with a focus on large-scale databases and meta-analytic evidence. They conclude that (a) tests of developed abilities are generally valid for their intended uses in predicting a wide variety of aspects of…

One of the most striking developments in Italian higher education in recent years has been the growth of commercial tutoring schools, which help college students prepare for the oral examinations on which their grades are based. By far the largest of such schools, the European Center for University Preparation, known by its Italian abbreviation,…

Specific and detailed instructions to implement an environmental engineering approach to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Subject Test for Psychology are outlined. Focus is on helping students prepare for this test. Some universities use the GRE as a measure of achievement and aptitude and as a criterion test. In truth, such a test does not…

Surveyed law schools to see if they offered bar preparation courses or other programs and whether they were effective. Detailed findings include that about 39 percent do offer such courses. (EV)

Offers seven steps for students to follow when writing an examination answer. (HOD)

Although many students and teachers may believe otherwise, answer changing can be helpful in test taking. This study examined the effects of having a teacher lecture on answer changing as a beneficial test strategy. Participants (N=470) were college students randomly assigned to intervention or nonintervention treatments. In the intervention…

This paper provides information about the efficacy of a model for preparing teacher candidates for the Arizona teacher licensure examination (i.e., Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments [AEPA]). The model includes test familiarization, drill and practice with feedback, training in strategies for specific item types, and general test…

Test takers were asked to report which, if any, methods they used to help prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The study began with the 1991-1992 academic testing year and ended with the 1996-1997 academic testing year. More than 100,000 students responded in each of the years, with the exception of a smaller sample in 1996-1997…

Explores the level of self-regulation of learning by college students. Addresses three questions: (1) what strategies students use as they prepare for tests; (2) whether students change strategies throughout the semester; and (3) whether changes in strategies are reflected in improved academic performance. Finds little evidence of the…

The School of Physics at the University of Sydney has introduced voluntary workshop tutorials in large first-year courses. The tutorials are based on informal cooperative groupings with structured worksheets and short hands-on activities. In this study we explore the relationship between attendance at the workshop tutorials and student performance…