Reliability and Validity

A test to aid in the university admissions process would need to consider a number of different factors. The test should measure the candidate against established precursors for university success. Such factors can include personality traits such as leadership, creativity and resiliency (Tomsho, 2009). If the test is able to quantify these traits and measure them against a database of historical data, then candidates can be evaluated for their chances of success.

The first step to ensuring reliability is that the measures against which the students are evaluated must be established over multiple tests in multiple university settings. There must be an extensive body of work illustrating that these traits in these levels are precursors to university success. This requires repeated successful trials (Colorado State University, 2009). Another key to ensuring reliability is that each candidate must be given the same test. Variance in the tests can result in variances in results, so establishing internal reliability requires the same test given to all candidates.

Having evidence demonstrated over a number of different trials at different schools, each with similar results contributes to external validity. Thus, the trials must all be for universities, as opposed to careers for example, so that the results of those trials are transferable to our university's admissions process.

To ensure internal validity, the admissions test must include a sufficient number of questions (data points) to establish a clear trend. The questions and answers themselves must be free of ambiguity, which could distort the results. Further, the questions and answers must relate directly to the personality attributes that we are attempting to measure, if the results are to be valid.

Works Cited:

Colorado State University. (2009). Reliability and Validity. Colorado State University. Retrieved September 29, 2009 from http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/relval/

Tomsho, R. (2009). Adding Personality Tests to the College Admissions Mix. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 29, 2009 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203612504574342732853413584.html