Aptitude tests 'are biased against comprehensive school pupils'

The AQA said the tests were 'invalid' in assessing pupils (Getty Images)

Britain's biggest exam board will deliver a strong warning to universities today against using US-style aptitude tests to select their students.

A major research project for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) concludes they are "invalid" in assessing candidates' suitability for courses and an "unfair" method of allocating places.

Growing numbers of universities are introducing their own US-style intelligence tests for their most popular courses – particularly law and medicine – claiming they will help them select the most gifted students now that so many are achieving three straight A-grade passes at A-level.

Their use was advocated in a government inquiry into university admissions by Professor Steven Schwarz, the vice-chancellor of Brunel University, as a means of helping to improve the chances of young people from disadvantaged homes getting into Britain's elite universities.

The tests are also backed by the Sutton Trust, set up by the philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl to increase the number of pupils from struggling comprehensives obtaining places at the top 20 rated research establishments in the UK.

However, the AQA research, by Dr Neil Stringer, warns that the aptitude tests are "contaminated by other variables in the same way achievement tests are". It is just as easy, his report concludes, to coach pupils for an aptitude test as it is for an A-level exam – and this would lead to those pupils at independent or selective grammar schools gaining an unfair advantage.

The report comes amid revived controversy over university admissions with the publication this week of research from St George's, University of London which found that students admitted from struggling comprehensives on lower A-level grades do just as well as high-flyers from independent and grammar schools in their degree exams.

The AQA report cites a speech from Richard Atkinson, the president of the University of California, in which he says: "I visited an upscale private school and observed a class of 12-year-old students studying verbal analogies in anticipation of the SAT [standard assessment test]. The time involved was not aimed at developing the students' reading and writing abilities but rather their test-taking skills."

Instead of SATs, universities are urged to adopt a new banding arrangement for admissions. Under this pupils would be banded according to their A-level marks. The bands would then be weighted to give priority to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

However, the report admits: "The controversy will begin when we argue that someone with a lower score should overtake another applicant because his lower score is a greater achievement considering the educational context. Clearly there is a large range of comparisons between the case of AAA (good school) and AAA (bad school) and the far less reasonable AAA (good school) vs EEE (bad school)."

Dr Mike Creswell, director general of the AQA, said of the aptitude tests; "There is no national or international assessment measure that stands out as being fair to all students – otherwise we would all be using it."

SAT tests

The SAT reasoning test was first introduced as an admissions test for US colleges in 1901. The test comprises three sections: maths, critical reasoning and writing. Typical of the maths questions are the following:

* Alison deposits £500 into a new savings account that earns 5 per cent interest compounded annually. If Alison makes no additional deposits or withdrawals, how many years will it take for the amount in the account to double?

(a) 14 (b) 15 (c) 19 (d) 20 (e) 21

* For a class test, the mean score was 65, the median score was 71 and the standard deviation of the scores was 7. The teacher decided to add 5 points to each score due to a grading error. Which of the following statements must be true for the new scores?

(i) The new mean score is 70 (ii) The new median score is 76 (iii) The new standard deviation of the scores is 12.

(a) None (b) i only (c) ii only (d) i and ii only (e) i, ii and iii

Answers: Q1: b, Q2: d