SUCCESS IN COLLEGE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ON MULTIPLE-CHOICE AND ESSAY TESTS

Students with high scores (top third) on the essay portion of an Advan ced Placement examination and low scores (bottom third) on the multipl e-choice portion of the examination were compared with students with t he opposite pattern (top third on the multiple-choice questions and bo ttom third on the essay questions). Across examinations in different s ubject areas (history, English, and biology), students who were relati vely strong in the essay format and weak in the multiple-choice format were as successful in their college courses as students with the oppo site pattern, especially in those courses where grades are typically n ot determined by multiple-choice tests. Although differential essay an d multiple-choice test performance was not related to course grades, i t was related to performance on other tests. Students in the high mult iple-choice/low essay group performed much better than the other group on other multiple-choice tests, especially the verbal section of the SAT. In relation to their performance on multiple-choice tests, studen ts in the high essay/low multiple-choice group performed well on other essay tests.