Sex Differences among High School Seniors

Abstract

Objective timed tests are an integral part of the University of Utah’s admissions and placement testing. The purpose of this study was to further investigate Yates’ findings of the effect of time limits on results obtained from such tests. The sample consisted of seventy freshman students who had been identified, on the basis of scores obtained on the Cooperative English Expression Test, as lacking the English skills necessary for satisfactory university work and had been assigned therefore to a remedial English class. Alternate forms of the same test were administered to these students during the first class meeting and at the conclusion of the 10-week course. The effect of additional time produced results of the same magnitude as the remedial English course. It was also noted that if scores obtained with extended time limits had been used for placement rather than scores obtained by students on the entrance battery, 41 percent of the sample would not have been placed in remedial English. Implications for such findings in university admissions and placement are discussed.