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Description
The present study sought to answer the following question: By means of an aptitude test designed to waive the course requirement, can students be identified who possess the basic skills and knowledge that the course Information Processing and Computer Programming, B.A. 83, is designed to provide at San Diego State College? The hypothesis posed for the study stated that no significant correlation existed between the aggregate semester T-scores of a sample of students completing B.A. 83 and the T-scores obtained by the sample on an objective test designed to measure the skills and knowledge acquired in B.A. 83. Procedure: The research procedure involved the development of an instrument comprised of true-false and multiple-choice items selected from a pool of B.A. 83 final examination questions. A test blueprint was used to aid in the selection of items according to commonly taught subject-matter areas. Content validity was determined by professors currently teaching the course B. A. 83. The instrument was administered as a final examination to a pretest sample group of 58 students in June of 1971 and to a test sample group of 72 students in January of 1972. Those items which failed to meet predetermined criteria of discrimination, difficulty, and distractor effectiveness were replaced or revised after each administration of the instrument. Results: A Kuder-Richardson coefficient of internal reliability was calculated at .85 from the results of the second administration of the instrument. An average difficulty index of .68 and an average discrimination index of .29 were also computed. A product-moment correlation coefficient of .76 computed between T-scores from the second administration of the instrument and T-scores from corresponding aggregate semester scores obtained in B.A. 83 caused the null hypothesis posed for the study to be rejected at the .01 level of confidence. Conclusions: The following conclusions were drawn from the study: 1. Common subject areas were taught in all sections of B.A. 83. 2. An aptitude test developed from a pool of teacher-made items provided a reliable and valid means of measuring skills and knowledge generally obtained in the B.A. 83 course. 3. A high positive correlation tended to exist between the aggregate semester scores students obtained in a B.A. 83 course and the scores they obtained on the aptitude test. 4. Two hours provided adequate time for students to finish a 100-item objective instrument consisting of approximately one-third FORTRAN programming problems. 5. Multiple-choice items can be used effectively to measure basic FORTRAN programming knowledge. 6. When a penalty for guessing is not incorporated into the scoring procedure, a high internal reliability coefficient can be attained if examinees are given adequate time to finish the examination.
