Coaching Candidates to Score Higher on Tests

Introduction

Applicants for higher education, jobs, etc. are usually required to take aptitude tests for selection and sometimes for placement. Applicants strive for high scores to increase their chances in the selection or placement process. To achieve such scores, examinees may utilize various forms of coaching. Coaching was defined by Cole (1982) as a ‘wide variety of test preparation activities undertaken by individuals in an attempt to improve test scores’. These may range from solving some items to extensive courses.

Today most testing institutions offer free (or inexpensive) explanations of test instructions, a multitude of practice items and tests, and test-taking strategies. These provide fundamental coaching to examinees and facilitate practice with ‘official material’.

After a brief historical review, we shall describe coaching – its components, the various forms it can take, and its prevalence. This will be followed by a review of studies that have attempted to evaluate the coaching effect – the size of the score gain. A separate section will deal with social and test validity issues associated with coaching.

Historical Background

Coaching is as old as testing. The earliest example can be found in China, where coaching for civil service examinations has been in existence for some 3000 years. In the modern testing era, coaching research began with the Binet intelligence tests in France. Binet and Simon (1916) discovered that test scores improved in the second administration of intelligence tests to 9-year-old pupils. The gain was attributed to several factors, including familiarity with the test content. In England, studies were conducted on coaching for the eleven-plus examinations, which were used extensively for pupil selection after primary school. Yates (1953) and others showed that coaching for these examinations can improve scores. However, their studies were not methodologically sound, therefore limiting generalization from these findings.

The question of whether aptitude test scores are affected by coaching has been extensively discussed (e.g. Bond, 1989). Until about 1970, the commonly held view was that improvement due to coaching was very small, if not negligible. This view is clearly demonstrated by the following typical quote from the publication of ETS (Educational Testing Service, which is responsible for several of the largest testing programmes in the world): ‘The magnitude of the gains resulting from coaching vary slightly but they are always small regardless of the coaching method used or the differences in the students coached’ (ETS, 1965: 4).

Later, as data accumulated, views of coaching effectiveness changed. Today, educational [Page 208]researchers agree that coaching usually results in small score gains, and the question to be addressed is no longer ‘Does coaching help?’ but ‘How much does coaching help?’

Coaching Components, Forms and Prevalence