A Mathematics Test as a Chemistry Placement Test OMAR C. HELD University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
THE University of Pittsburgh chemistry department offers two general inorganic chemistry courses for the University students. One of these courses is designed for students who have had high-school chemistry, and the other for those who have not. This method of admitting students to the more advanced course in inorganic chemistry has not been entirely satisfactory to the chemistry staff. The fact that a student has presented a unit of high-school chemistry is not a good index of his ability to function satisfactorily in the more advanced inorganic course. Some students do quite well, while others are incapable of doing the work in this course, and should probably be enrolled in the course with those who have not had highschool chemistry. In view of the present unsatisfactory method of placing students in chemistry, the s t d members have been looking about for a better placement technic. They feel that a chemistry placement test would not quite meet the situation, as the students' inability to function satisfactorily in the course is due fundamentally to a weakness in mathematics. At the present time, the University is giving a mathematics placement test to all freshmen who expect to take mathematics. The author wondered if this test could not also be used for a similar purpose for chemis-
We are primarily interested in finding which of these students should have been placed in the course with those students who had had no high-school chemistry. It was assumed that those who made "D" and "F" grades in the f i s t semester of the more advanced inorganic chemistry course had poor preparation for the course. It was also assumed that those who did "C" grade of work had a fair background for the course, and those who made "A" and "B" grades had good preparation. The mean mathematics placement test score was computed for each group, that is the "D, F" group, the "C" group, and the "A, B" group. Tables 1 and 2 summarize the data. TABLE 1
MATABIAT~CB PLACBHSNZ SCOEB~ OF S ~ D B NIN TS THB MORBADVANCBD INOROANIC CBBMISTBY COUBSBIN Tnam FIRSTSBXBSTBR Meon Molhmolirr ChcmZslry Number of Sludrnls Placcmcnt Scare Crodc
R S L I A B ~ Won
TBB
TABLE 2 D ~ F B ~ ~OI C TBB B S M B ~ OP S TEE T H ~ B GROUPS B
Differmcr Grodc GrauP
A~l~ol Diff~rmcr
Rdiabilily o j Diff'rmrc
Rdinbililyof Diffwcnrr
try. A group of 269 engineering freshmen who entered the University over a period of three years, who were placed in this more advanced inorganic chemistry on t h e basis of their having had a high-school course, and who had also taken the mathematics placement -test, were selected for study.
In each instance there is a statistically reliable difference between the groups. This would seem to indicate that our mathematics placement test might be used as a chemistry placement test to good advantage.
