The Selection of Students for Freshman Chemistry by Means of Discriminant Functions
A study begun in September 1948 at Michi gan State College was concerned with the rela tionship between success in Chemistry 101, a freshman course requiring no high school chem istry, and the ability to perform the fundamen tal arithmetic operations and to read materials involving chemistry. All entering chemistry students were administered the ACE Psycholog ical Examination and the Michigan State College Chemistry Pre-Test. At the completion of the course their grades were correlated with their scores on the two tests. The correlations are presented in Table I. These correlations show that success in the course is related to the two abilities, i. e. to perform fundamental arithmetic operations and to read appropriate material. An attempt was then made to determine scores for these tests by which students could be selected for admis sion to the course. Those failing to meet these standards could be given remedial work before enrolling in the course. Two methods of selec tion were tried: (1) a minimum total score on the pre-test, and (2) a minimum score for each part of the pre-test. Since neither of the previous methods had proved satisfactory for selecting students, the reported investigation was undertaken. The technique of discriminant functions was em ployed using three variables (1, 2). The three tests selected were: 1. The raw score on Part I of the Chem istry Pre-Test consisting of twenty-five arithmetic reasoning and computation items. 2. The raw score on Part H of the test con sisting of fifty-two reading items, re quiring no previous chemistry but cover ing chemistry material. 3. The ACE total decile rank.