Psychometric Evaluation of the New GRE Writing Measure GRE
- Author(s):
- Schaeffer, Gary A.; Briel, Jacqueline B.; Fowles, Mary E.
- Publication Year:
- 2014
- Source:
- Wendler, Cathy; Bridgeman, Brent (eds.) with assistance from Chelsea Ezzo. The Research Foundation for the GRE revised General Test: A Compendium of Studies. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 2014, p1.9.1-1.9.4
- Document Type:
- Chapter
- Page Count:
- 4
- Subject/Key Words:
- Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Revised GRE, Analytical Writing, Test Revision, Essay Prompts, Writing Tests, Item Order Effects, Score Distributions, Graduate Students, Test Performance, Test-Taker Performance
Abstract
Reports on a study that examined four psychometric aspects of the Analytical Writing measure when it was first introduced in 1999. The first, prompt difficulty, looked at test takers’ scores on a number of prompts to see if they were representative of the scores obtained on other prompts of the same type. The impact of the order that prompt types were given on test scores, or order effects, was the second aspect analyzed. Score distributions by race/ethnicity and gender groups for each of the two prompt types were also examined. Finally, relationships among the scores from the issue and argument writing tasks were examined to determine whether two writing scores or a single combined score would be reported. Results guided the decisions made about the configuration and scoring of the Analytical Writing measure.