NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- A college admissions examination -- a revision of the College Board's SAT -- has passed its first test, officials at Yale University said Tuesday.
Officials said the new test, developed with funding provided by the College Board, measures creative and practical skills as well as memory and analytical ability.
Lead investigator Robert Sternberg, a professor of psychology, said the test was also friendly to minorities.
"We did better at predicting college success than the current SAT and high school grade point average, and we did better at reducing group differences," Sternberg said.
"In times when affirmative action's legal status is up the air, the useful thing about our test is it can help accomplish the same goal as affirmative action without using affirmative action," he said.
The new test was administered to 1,007 students at two high schools, five community colleges and eight four-year colleges across the country.
The first phase of the study primarily used data from 793 first-year college students because the researchers are looking at the test's ability to predict success in college and not in high school.
The test includes a combination of multiple-choice sections and performance-based sections.
In one section, students were shown cartoons and asked to write captions for them. They were also asked to write stories based on a list of titles. Others asked students to consider a common difficult situation and rate the best solutions numerically.
Sternberg said the test would not replace the SAT but would augment it.
There will be two other tests involving more students with an eye to making it shorter and more effective -- and determining whether it is commercially viable.
"What we are trying to do is link psychological theory to the prediction process rather than 'Let's just see what works and use that,'" he said "The new tests helps to enhance a psychological understanding of what it takes to be successful in college."
