Adult Learners and the SAT in the University System of Georgia [microform] / Cameron Fincher

A study examined the predictive efficiency of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) for adult learners in the University System of Georgia (USGA). Also investigated during the study were the effects of variables such as age, sex, and race on the performance of adult learners on the SAT and in college and the relative academic performance of adult learners and traditional college-aged students. Based on an analysis of data collected from various subpopulations of the total population of 1,694 adults who were identified as adult learners enrolled in the USGA, the researchers concluded that while the verbal and math SAT scores of adult learners correlated significantly with their grades, the coefficients of these correlations did not match what is customarily found in traditional college-aged populations. The usefulness of the SAT in predicting adult learning lies, as it usually does, in the incremental effectiveness of verbal and math scores when they are used in conjunction with high school grades. These conclusions led the researchers to caution admission directors, registrars, and testers who combine verbal and math SAT scores for a total SAT score that they are destroying valuable information about the learning competencies of learners. (MN)