The Effects of Practice Administrations in Learning to Administer and Score the WAIS-R: A Partial Replication

Abstract

In this study, 149 WAIS-R protocols were analyzed that were completed by 22 graduate students enrolled in an individual intelligence testing course to ascertain the effectiveness of practice administrations in developing examiner competency. Students made numerous errors, such as assigning too few or too many points to responses and obtaining incorrect basals or ceilings. No improvement was noted over five practice administrations. Errors were reduced over 10 administrations, but students were still making 10.2 errors per protocol. Findings indicate that the standard practice of having students complete only four practice administrations of the WAIS-R does not reduce the number of examiner errors students make. Even completing as many as 10 practice administrations does not develop adequate examiner proficiency. Therefore, current methods for teaching assessment courses need to be modified in order to minimize examiner errors. Until such modifications are made, in-service training and careful interpretation of Full Scale WAIS-R scores are needed.