0
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS, FORM N Reviewed by H.E. WlLCOX Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alahama
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QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS, FORM N Mazirnum possible score
Percentile ~ a n k 99 95 gn
Sub-group I (one semeste~)
(two semesters)
Sub-group N
105
105
85 68
87 72 61
fin
THISmuch
needed new farm of the quantitative analysis test follows closely the pattern set by the older F o r m X, Y, and G. I t is of the multiple-choice type, but the number of questions in the theory section has been reduced from 60 to 45, although the time allotted to this section remains unchanged. As in the past, thirty problems comprise the second part, including same which might be considered to be qualitative analysis types. Since the questions and problems are of approximately the same average difficulty as those in previous tests, the reduction in number of items should remove much of the time pressure. As might be expected, the questions and problems show a, wide variation in difficulty from the simplest memory types to those which should challenge the reasoning ability of the best students. Still, i t might have been desirable to have used "correct answer not given" as one of the five choices for s t least some of the problems since all of the correct answers checked very closely by slide-rule ealeolations. In a shortened examination, however, one should certainly avoid redundancy, and this reviewer found some pairs of questions which impressed him as testing nearly identical areas of knowledge. Thus, while the coverage of material should be quite adequate for s. one-semester course, there would probably be some incompletely tested mess if this test were used for students who
VOLUME 35, NO. 5, MAY, 1958
The scoring formula used was R W / 4 throughout. The fieures eiven are raw scores. had had a rigorous two-semester course in quantitative analysis in addition to qualitative analysis. Since this test will be used primarily as the final examination in one-quarter or one-semester courses, the above objection is not a serious one.
