A study of the sophomore testing program at the University of Minnesota. Part 3

Abstract

This study assesses the value of honor point ratio and tests given in the sophomore year on history and social science, foreign literature, fine arts, total general culture, English usage, spelling, vocabulary, total English, and general science, in selecting students to be granted degrees with honors. On the basis of analysis of variance it was found that candidates for honors could be placed in two homogeneous groups: Group I included majors in English, journalism, romance language, social science, social work, and liberal arts. Group II included majors in natural science, medicine, mathematics, and psychology. For Group I there were significant differences in mean scores for all tests, except fine arts, and in honor point ratios between candidates rejected or failed by the Honors Committee and candidates granted higher honors. For Group II only honor point ratios yielded a significant difference. The best combination of weights for the tests for discriminating successful from unsuccessful candidates for honors in Group I, was worked out by means of the discriminant function. The resulting distribution of combined scores shows notable differences between successful and unsuccessful candidates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)