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Who Benefits Most From Preparing for a “Coachable” Admissions Test?
Author(s) -
Powers Donald E.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of educational measurement
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.917
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-3984
pISSN - 0022-0655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3984.1987.tb00278.x
Subject(s) - test (biology) , psychology , ethnic group , differential item functioning , significant difference , clinical psychology , medicine , item response theory , statistics , psychometrics , mathematics , paleontology , sociology , anthropology , biology
A previous study of the initial, preoperational version of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) analytical ability measure (Powers & Swinton, 1984) revealed practically and statistically significant effects of test familiarization on analytical test scores. (Two susceptible item types were subsequently removed from the test.) Data from this study were reanalyzed for evidence of differential effects for subgroups of examinees classified by age, ethnicity, degree aspiration, English language dominance, and performance on other sections of the GRE General Test. The results suggested little, if any, difference among subgroups of examinees with respect to their response to the particular kind of test preparation considered in the study. Within the limits of the data, no particular subgroup appeared to benefit significantly more or significantly less than any other subgroup.