Assessing the Test-Wiseness of Health Science Students

Abstract

Two alternate test forms were developed to assess several test-wiseness (TW)principles for use with students in the health sciences. Each of the 24-item tests has six subtests consisting of four multiple-choice items that assess the examinee's skill in using the TWprinciples of similar options, umbrella term, item give-away, convergence principle, length of correct option, and stemoption cue. Analysis of responses from 39 entering medical students showed reasonable internal consistency (KR-20 = .79 for the combinedforms) and alternate form (r = .68) reliabilities. The means (64.1% and 65.7%, standard deviations (13.9% and 14.1%, and KR-20 reliabilities (.65 and .65) were similar for the two forms of the test. Some degree of validity for measuring TW is indicated by the significant gain made on the test by nursing and medical students specifically instructed in test-taking skills and by the correlations with course grades. The test is appropriatefor use with health science students because of the medical nature of the content of the test items and the level of performance on the test by both nursing and medical students, although some question remains concerning the appropriateness of retaining the current items that measure the use of the convergence principle.