Open AccessCHARACTERISTICS OF EXAMINEES WHO LEAVE QUESTIONS UNANSWERED ON THE GRE GENERAL TEST UNDER RIGHTS‐ONLY SCORING
Author(s) -
Grandy Jerilee
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2330-8516.1987.tb00242.x
Subject(s) - test (biology) , blank , psychology , ethnic group , social psychology , mechanical engineering , paleontology , sociology , anthropology , engineering , biology
The purpose of the study was to determine why some examinees taking the GRE General Test leave items blank when they have been told that they will not be penalized for guessing and have been instructed to guess on questions they cannot answer. Data from the October 1984 test administration were analyzed to establish whether nonguessers were different in any way from those who completed, or nearly completed, each test section. Nonguessers were defined as examinees who left large numbers of items blank, whether by omitting or by not finishing a test section. The analyses in this study did not separate these two ways of leaving items blank. A sample of non‐guessers was also surveyed by mail to determine whether they understood the instructions and why they omitted items. The tendency to leave items blank was most evident among the following groups of examinees: women non‐Whites, particularly Blacks resident aliens or foreign non‐citizens members of families with less than average formal education older examinees examinees who were out of school or already in graduate school examinees who had taken the GRE previously, under old instructions examinees planning to study humanities or social sciences examinees with lower than average undergraduate grades examinees with lower than average GRE scores, even when the scores were corrected for not guessing In regression analyses, GRE scores provided the best estimate of number of items left unanswered. For the verbal section, ethnicity was the second best predictor. Age, sex, and GPA made small but significant contributions to the equation. For the quantitative section, age was the second best predictor after test score, with sex and ethnicity each contributing a small amount. The analytical score was also predicted best by test score and second by age. Ethnicity and GPA provided small but significant weights. Survey results suggested that many nonguessers did not fully understand guessing strategies and may have been confused by the new instructions because they conflicted with what the examinees had learned earlier. Their questionnaire responses were often inconsistent, and many claimed to have read and heard instructions not to guess.