Test-Takers' Judgments of Essay Prompts: Perceptions and Performance

This study gathered the judgments of Graduate Record Examination test takers-actual and prospective-about a sample of essay prompts being considered for possible use in a graduate admissions writing test. Our thesis was that test-takers' views, which have not been frequently considered in any systematic fashion, may provide valuable information to developers of writing assessments. The specific objective was to determine the kinds of prompts and topics on which examinees feel they can write strong essays, as well as those that they perceive as more difficult. The study identified several features that underlie examinee perceptions of essay prompts. Prominent among these features was the extent to which prompts allow writers to draw on their personal experiences. Some study participants also wrote essays on a small subset of the prompts. With these data, the relation of examinee opinions to performance on the prompts was examined. Though apparent, this relation was less dramatic than writers' strong opinions would suggest.