[Winona] TESTS

[William Davis MD]

There are a number of issues with tests.  First is to decide what the test is for and be careful about using it for something else.  An example from my field is the MCAT test used to decide who gets into medical school.  All the studies say there is NO correlation with success in medical school and MCAT scores.  So why do they give the test?  At many schools they have several thousand applications for a few hundred spots.  It is impossible to interview all those people so they use a test that is designed to give a wide distribution of scores.  They then take that score and multiply it by the adjusted grade point average (adjusted for the school—graduates of Harvard have a higher adjusted GPA then graduates of WSU).  The result is a number that ranges in the thousands.  They then take the top 10% for the scores and start interviewing.  The only purpose of the test is to have something to use to make the first cut.  It has no meaning with respect to outcome.  That is, they could just as easily take the bottom 10% of scores and still have students that would succeed in medical school.   A test designed to determine whether students have basic knowledge that we think all citizens should have (ability to read, write, do basic math, and make reasoned decisions) would look very different from a test that is designed to determine who should be considered for college education.  If schools are doing their job, we would expect 95% plus of students to have “citizenship” education while only 50% might have the skills needed to be successful for college.  The temptation is to try to use the same test for both purposes.   Second, written tests favor certain kinds of learners.  It might be more meaningful to give each student who is about to graduate a set of “problems” they need to solve.  Examples might be reading the want ads, finding out where to vote and doing it, shopping, etc.   I am much more interested in whether a person has the ability to solve problems using whatever resources they can find (including asking someone else) than whether a person has memorized a large amount of information but can’t seem to use it.  The person who just memorizes is stumped as soon as the problem changes slightly.     William Davis MD Family Medicine of Winona [EMAIL PROTECTED]