In its recent budget the Australian Government announced its intention to pilot a Year 12 aptitude test to assist in university entry.  The test is not intended as a replacement for existing tertiary entrance ranks (UAI/ENTER/TER), but as an additional piece of evidence that universities will be able to use to identify students with the capacity for higher education study. 

The proposed test will further broaden the evidence already being used by Australian universities as part of their student selection processes.  It joins tests used by a number of law, business, dental and medical schools, including the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admissions Test (UMAT), the Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT), and the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) used by many universities to select mature-age applicants who do not have recent Year 12 results.

So what is an aptitude test? Unlike traditional IQ tests which include questions on vocabulary, patterns and abstract content, modern aptitude tests measure candidates’ abilities to understand information provided and to apply that information to realistic problems.  The focus is on academic reasoning: the kinds of thinking that underpin higher education studies and that are essential across a range of academic disciplines.

Two Australian universities, Monash and ANU, recently trialled an aptitude test to select students from a range of social backgrounds.  This test, known as uniTEST, was developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and Cambridge Assessment to assist Australian and UK universities to identify students with the verbal and quantitative reasoning skills required for university study.  By providing applicants with a ‘second chance’, the test is designed to make university more accessible to students whose backgrounds and circumstances may have placed them at a disadvantage in regular selection processes.

Perhaps predictably, concerns sometimes are expressed that aptitude testing will lead to a lowering of standards on campus.  But research shows that a combination of Year 12 results and aptitude test scores provides a good indication of likely success at university.

Aptitude tests also provide an additional piece of evidence for differentiating among high-scoring students who currently can be compared only on the basis of their tertiary entrance ranks.  Evidence from uniTEST trials in the UK suggests that the test may be helpful in comparing students who have very similar secondary school results.

Finally, a common Year 12 aptitude test may provide more direct comparisons of inter-state applicants and assist in the statistical process used to compare tertiary entrance ranks across Australia.

For all these reasons, the introduction of a Year 12 aptitude test may be a welcome addition to the student selection landscape.

footnote:  ACER will be piloting uniTEST in a number of Australian universities during 2007.

Article by Louise Reynolds, Geoff Masters and Deirdre Jackson.

« Back to eNews