University of Minnesota Moment: Standardized Tests Dead On

Transcript

[Announcer]: I’m Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moments. Standardized test scores for graduate and professional schools are more accurate than prior academic experience in predicting student success, according to researchers at the U of M. Nathan Kuncel, University of Minnesota psychology professor, explains.

[Kuncel]: We looked at a whole host of tests; we basically examined what’s probably over 90% of the Graduate Admissions tests administered in the U.S. each year. So we looked at the GERI, the MTAT, the LSAT, the GMAT, the Miller Analogies Test and the PCAT. We examined over 2,000 studies with the total cumulative set of students of around half a million people. These results suggest that if you do really well on one of these Graduate Admissions tests you will tend to do better in graduate school, if you’re in a research field produce more research, and if you’re trying to get your masters or doctorate you’re more likely to finish your degree program.

[Moore]: Kuncel has advice for those getting ready for grad school test.

[Kuncel]: The research suggest that if you want to prepare for a test that you should spend your time taking practice versions of that test and figure out what you’ve done wrong and do it over and over again until you get good and familiar with the test. That tends to yield the biggest gains in terms of scores, for the least amount of cost.

[Moore]: That’s Nathan Kuncel for the University of Minnesota Moments.