Test disclosure and retest performance on the SAT

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of disclosing a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) form on the retest performance of examinees who initially took the disclosed form and subsequently took a different form. Retest performance was compared for three random samples of examinees who took the SAT as high school juniors in the May 1981 administration in New York and then retook it in the October 1981 administration : two experimental groups that were sent the standard set of disclosed material for the May SAT, along with either a noncommittal or an encouraging letter intended to vary their motivation to use the material, and a control group that was not sent anything. The three groups were generally similar in the level and retest reliability of their October scores, indicating that access to the disclosed material had no appreciable effects on retest performance.