[RUME] On-line Placement tests

[quadratic at juno.com]

At my small institution, the administration presently does not give a
math placement test during orientation or at any other time before the
first day of the semester, so I decided to have the students take the
placement test online on their own time, rather than give them a written
placement exam on the first day of class (the latter would take away from
class time, and probably not set a good tone for the semester).  (Their
advisors initially assign them to a math class based on some combination
of SAT scores and high school grades.)  I don't say anything about use of
notes or calculators during the placement exam, and it is untimed.  I
have not heard of any cases of cheating on the placement test, but I have
heard of cases of a student rushing through to finish the exam and
getting a score lower than they think that they deserve.

We have encountered some problems with the online placement exam after
the start of classes.  Some students simply refuse to take the exam, or
they take the exam so late that it is impractical to switch to another
math class.  Some other students refuse to switch down to a lower class
when their placement score indicates that they should do so, and it takes
a while for their advisor to catch up with the student.  Another common
problem, particularly for students using a dial-up connection, is that
they may be disconnected from the Internet during the exam (so I would
have to reset the exam so that they can start over, but I am not always
aware of this right away).

I have encountered cases of students whose placement test score moves
them up as much as two levels (from the course in which their advisor
originally assigned them), and others whose placement test score would
move them down two levels.

Howard Wachtel
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Goldey-Beacom College
http://www.gbc.edu/~wachtel

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> The Orientation office at my university is proposing to move away 
> from giving a paper and pencil test to incoming freshman students. 
> One option they are pushing is for us to offer an on-line placement 
> 
> test.  A second option they are pushing is for us to rely on just 
> the 
> Math SAT score.
> 
> Currently:  new freshmen are placed into a freshman math class by 
> the 
> Math SAT scores and by our own in-house Math Skills Test.  If the 
> Math SAT score is 550 or greater, then the Skills Test is waived, 
> and 
> Liberal Arts students may enroll in Finite Math (which serves as our 
> 
> Liberal Arts math class, and uses Mathematical Ideas by Miller, 
> Hereen, Hornsby); or Business Majors may enroll in Quatitative 
> Method 
> for Business.  (Math and Science majors are a different category, 
> and 
> I'll skip over their placement.)
> 
> If the Math SAT score is under 550, we administer our Math Skills 
> Test at a Testing session in May.  Students who pass our Skills Test 
> 
> may also enroll in Finite Math or Quantitative Methods, as 
> appropriate, but student who fail must enroll in the course Math 
> Skills Lab (if Liberal Arts) or Intro to Quantitative Methods (if 
> Business).  Neither of these classes carries credit toward 
> graduation, nor, in our opinion, should they, since they are 
> remedial.
> 
> I'm reluctant to go to on-line testing, because I fear that (a) 
> students might have a friend take the test for them or (b) students 
> 
> won't follow the rules we put in place.  Our rule is "no 
> calculators" 
> and many students resent this, but we think it is important for 
> students at least to have minimal skills with arithmetic and algebra 
> 
> before entering these math classes.  It is my experience (as Chair, 
> 
> and previously, as Director of the Math Lab)  that many students 
> would do whatever it takes to avoid taking the developmental, 
> non-credit class (except study, that is).
> 
> I'm also reluctant to rely solely on the SAT score, because the SAT 
> 
> is testing at a higher level of understanding. ( There's also the 
> calculator issue, but ...)
> 
> Does anyone have direct experience with online placement tests, and 
> 
> whether students abide by the rules?
> Or anecdotal reports, or research on whether students who pass 
> on-line tests are better or worse prepared than students who take 
> paper-and-pencil tests?

>