Merits of certain graduate school exams questioned

By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Reporter

Though UC President Richard Atkinson’s proposal to end the
SAT I is still under review, standardized tests at the graduate
level are expected to remain in use.

“It’s fairly early in the process. A lot of these
implementation issues have not been addressed yet,” said UC
Spokesman Brad Hayward. “President Atkinson’s goal is
to end up with a process that assesses students in what they learn
in school so we are not relying on tests that measure aptitude and
not achievement.”

The SAT I has been criticized as a racially and
socio-economically biased test, but some believe the test provides
a way to measure the strengths of students in an objective and
efficient manner.

Depending on the outcome of Atkinson’s proposal, a gamut
of tests should be subject to review, said Alan Garfinkel, UCLA
professor and Academic Council divisional representative. These
range from high school standardized tests to the MCAT and LSAT,
which are geared toward students entering a professional field, to
the GRE for non-professional students.

Though smaller, private schools have the luxury of holistic
applications, the numbers produced by these standardized tests
offer the UC a way to efficiently filter through applicants.

“However right or wrong, a lot of schools and departments
do a lot of number crunching with the GRE,” said Graduate
Student Association President Martin Griffin, a doctoral candidate
in English. “It seems to be less a guide to the quality of an
applicant than it is a mechanism for ranking applicants.”

Acting professor of law Khaled Abou el Fadl said the use of
graduate-level tests are well suited to the United States’
dependency on “objective” tests designed to evaluate
the masses. Essentially, he said, a cultural bias is created if
students test without having prior experience with standardized
tests or with the topics selected.

“It’s good for a culture that is used to these tests
and can afford to take prep courses,” he said. “But I
think the tests are terrible predictors when it comes to students
who are economically or racially unusual for law school.”

From 1991-96, Harvard University followed a similar
test-eliminating trend under former Dean Tim Clark with the
omission of the GMAT, according to Kaplan Vice President for
Learning and Assessment Seppi Basili, who said they re-implemented
the test after they saw the quality of applicants decrease.

Contrary to some interpretations, Atkinson’s proposal aims
only to eliminate the SAT I, though he said the media has
misconstrued his intent as a rampage to eliminate standardized
tests entirely.

“(The papers) think I want to get rid of all standardized
tests,” Atkinson said at the Academic Council meeting at UC
Berkeley, referring to the press’ interpretation of a speech
he released on Feb. 16. “They call me a provincial
bureaucrat.”

Atkinson proposed to abolish the SAT I because he does not see a
correlation between the test results and students’
performances in college.

“They’re stupid pet tricks,” Garfinkel said.
“Those questions have nothing to do with the abilities that
make you a good student, a good researcher or scientist.”

Similar arguments plague the MCAT, which has been modified and
reviewed repeatedly over the last 20 years, according to admissions
officer Lili Fobert.

The last revision occurred in 1991.

“The MCAT is the devil’s instrument,”
Garfinkel said. “They have given us a generation of students
raised to take tests and not to think about things.”

The MCAT is currently undergoing another review, and may be
different in the next year.

The main aspect in question is the composition component, which
is said to be biased against foreign students. But this perceived
flaw is not restricted to the MCAT. For students like Griffin, who
completed his undergraduate work overseas, the structure of the GRE
itself proved an obstacle to overcome.

“I was completely unused to something like the GRE. I had
to do some crash learning in order to pass it,” he said.
“If you come from an educational system where tests like that
are the norm, you are going to do better.”

Some faculty members said there is a cultural bias in the
professional tests as well.

Abou el Fadl, a former foreign student, took the LSAT in 1985
and said he did significantly better on the test his second
time.

“The only thing was that I adjusted techniques,” he
said. “I think it was a fluke.”

Despite dissenting arguments on graduate tests, some say the
tests are here to stay.

“My guess is, the same problems apply to the MCAT as the
SAT,” said Stanley Korenman, UCLA assistant dean of ethics
and scientific training. “But I don’t know if Atkinson
has control over that for the medical school.”

Advocates of standardized testing say the tests covers general
knowledge and that professional tests such as the LSAT and MCAT are
viable predictors of success because the material is
topic-specific, as it is on the SAT II.

“I think the (MCAT) is a reasonable test,” Korenman
said. “Of the students who we interview, we don’t
ignore how they did on it but it isn’t the determining
factor.”

As in the law school, the use of these standardized tests are
used to screen candidates in lieu of grades and letters of
recommendation.

“The LSAT counts for at least as much as grades. In terms
of making an academic assessment it’s very important,”
said Michael Rappaport, associate dean of admissions. “The
LSAT is the best single measure, a better predictor than
grades.”

The tests may provide a means to show strengths not reflected in
transcripts or coursework, Basili said.

In the case of the MCAT, students who take the test are often
non-science majors who would not be likely to have many science or
medical related courses, if any, on their transcript. For these
types of students, the MCAT provides a weighing mechanism.

“We don’t flunk anyone here,” Korenman said.
“We invest a huge amount in the medical school and medical
students so selecting people who succeed is important.”

At the law school, the proficiency in reading and writing is
imperative, despite the lack of “testing cultures” in
other countries, said assistant dean and director of admissions
Andrea Sossin-Bergman.

“We do need to know their English and reading skills to
know they’ll be successful in law school,” she said.
“Especially since we don’t use the test of English as a
foreign language.”

Though Griffin said the GRE is not an accurate predictor of
success, he believes the playing field has been financially leveled
once students reach the graduate level.

“I don’t think there are the same political issues
(relating to race and socio-economic status) connected to the GRE
as there are with the SAT,” he said. “I think if people
have reached the stage of applying to graduate school,
they’re in a different socio-economic and psychological
stage.”