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ERIC Number: ED395941
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1989-Jan
Pages: 36
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Accounting for Random Responding at the End of the Test in Assessing Speededness on the Test of English as a Foreign Language. TOEFL Research Reports, Report 30.
Secolsky, Charles
The usual assessment of speededness for rights-only scored tests does not account for the possibility that examinees respond in a random or patterned fashion to the items at the end of the test as the time limit approaches. This study represented an attempt to determine if Sections 2 and 3 of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are truly speeded according to established criteria. Two exploratory techniques employing regression analyses were used in an attempt to account for the possibility of random or patterned responses at the end of each section. One technique provided an estimate of the degree to which all examinees truly reached the 75% point on the sections, and the second provided an estimate of the degree to which all examinees truly completed the last set of items. Support for the results was obtained from an examination of the number of items not reached and the number to which examinees responded in a patterned fashion. Findings are limited to the extent that one can attribute items not reached and patterned responding to the effect of speededness. Four administrations of the TOEFL (two pretest and two other) for 9,160 examinees in all were studied. Results suggest that Section 3 might be slightly speeded for pretest administrations, but more study is needed to confirm this finding. (Contains 9 tables and 10 references.) (Author/SLD)
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ.
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Test of English as a Foreign Language
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A