PLACEMENT VALIDITY OF A PROTOTYPE SAT WITH AN ESSAY

Grades in college freshman English composition courses were predicted from high school rank in class, multiple‐choice writing scores, essays, current SAT‐Verbal scores, and scores from a revised version of SAT‐Verbal. Data were obtained from 21 English courses at 17 different colleges with some supplementary data provided by an additional college. In general, a writing composite score consisting of essay and multiple‐choice writing scores appeared to outperform current or revised SAT‐Verbal scores; validity coefficients were as high or higher for the writing composite score, and the underprediction of the grades of women students was reduced. The best predictions were obtained from the combination of high school rank with the writing composite score.