Improving the Predictive Value of an Interest Test

Author(s):

Frederiksen, Norman O.; Melville, S. Donald

Publication Year:

1952

Report Number:

RM-52-13

Source:

ETS Research Memorandum

Document Type:

Report

Page Count:

9

Subject/Key Words:

Engineering Education, Grade Prediction, Interest Inventories, Predictive Measurement, Strong Vocational Interest Blank, Student Interests

Abstract

In counseling students with regard to academic problems, one often encounters the student who says that he or she did well in certain courses because he liked them. The inference is that he studies hard the things he likes to study and neglects the things one dislikes. Such observations would lead one to expect high correlations between interest measures and grades--higher than we usually find. On the other hand, one also encounters the student who has definite likes and dislikes among his courses, but who earns about the same grade in all of them. Students of this latter type are presumably responsible for the low correlations usually found between interest tests and college grades.

Read More

• Request Copy (specify title and report number, if any)