PERFORMANCE VERSUS OBJECTIVE TESTING AND GENDER - AN EXPLORATORY-STUDY OF AN ADVANCED PLACEMENT HISTORY EXAMINATION

To explore a phenomenon of gender differences in Advanced Placement ex aminations, random samples of free-response test booklets were taken f rom the 1986 examination in U.S. History. These examinations were chos en because they consistently show significant gender differences in ob jective scores but no gender differences in free-response scores. A re scoring of the free responses was conducted that focused on their hist orical content. This rescoring was conducted by readers other than tho se who conducted the original scoring and involved tallies of specific historical points made, supporting evidence given, and factual errors . Ratings were also made of handwriting quality, neatness, and English composition quality of the free responses. Analyses conducted indicat e that free-response tasks of the type examined may have inherent char acteristics that reward English composition abilities, and that some f emales may compensate for inferior historical knowledge with superior English composition abilities.