Relationship Between Students’ Test Results and Their Performance in Higher Education Using Different Test Scores

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between students’ college admissions test results and their performance in higher education using sum scores and optimal full-data scores. We used students from four university programs to examine predictive validity in terms of how the students performed on their studies in terms of obtained credits, as compared with their college admissions test results. The students’ test results were calculated using the commonly used sum scores and the recently proposed optimal scores. We also examined the predictive validity of the test scores while controlling for the student backgrounds in terms of educational background, migration background, and gender. The results show that using optimal scores or sum scores yields slightly different test score distributions, especially the score distribution among the highest test performers differed. Practical implications of which test scores to use in college admissions testing in the future are discussed.