RE: "poor test-takers?"

[Monica Vogler]

Hi all:   More on the "These tests just aren't fair.  I do well in all my other classes and I know I could do well in law school or grad school or grad school or ... , if I only had a chance.  I'm just not good at taking tests." phenomenon [epidemic?].   I've mentioned this little book in a previous post, and it seems it might be useful to do so again.  "The Psychologist's Book of Self-Tests" by Louis Janda [Perigree:  1996] contains the "Test Wiseness Test" that some of you mentioned.  It is a 40-item multiple-choice test and the source is quoted as:   Wayne Weiten.  "The TWT:  A scale to measure test-wiseness of multiple-choice exams with adults."  Unpublished manuscript, 1984.  College of DuPage.  Dr Weiten is currently at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. [I guess in 1996 when this was published.]   Janda goes on to say "Test-taking is a skill, and Dr. Wayne Weiten has constructed this Test-Wiseness Scale to measure this skill.  He has found that scores on this scale do correlate with performance on classroom tests, even when the influence of intelligence is factored out.  The good news is that his research has shown that test-taking is a skill that can be learned with relatively brief training."  [p. 60]  He then goes on to give 8 hints for test-taking.   And while we're at it, there was some discussion of also measuring "intelligence," "g," or ....  The same book [it's just too easy to ignore] offers up the 54-item General Mental Abilities Test which includes analogies, vocabulary, general information, mathematical ability, and spatial ability questions [Louis H. Janda, Jerry Fulk, Meredith Janda, and Judy Wallace.  "The Development of a Test of General Mental Abilities."  Unpublished manuscript, 1995, Old Dominion University.]  Janda states that this test predicts GPA's's of college undergraduates as well as SAT scores.  If we go ahead with this research, this test might be an option for institutions where SAT's are not required [e.g., Canada].   I don't know how hard it would be to get permission to use these scales, if we were interested.   I, like many others, am willing to help collect data.   Monica       Monica Vogler Psychology Instructor Castlegar Campus Selkirk College Castlegar, BC, Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] 250-365-7292  Ext 384 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]