General Educational Development (GED) testing : a comparative study of student performance on timed versus non-timed GED tests

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether there was a relationship[ between the level of students' performance on timed versus non-timed GED tests according to age, sex, formal grade level completed, ethnic origin, and participation or non-participation in GED preparatory classes. The subjects selected for the study consisted of six hundred students from twenty-six official GED testing centers in the state of Texas. The data for the study were gathered by use of a GED information questionnaire which provided demographic and test-score information of all subjects involved. The data were treated statistically and the results rejected the five research hypotheses that there is no difference in student performance on the timed versus non-timed GED test according to age, sex, formal grade level completed, ethnic origin, and participation or non-participation in GED preparatory classes. A contingency table analysis was computed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) to classify the responses for each of the five variables into two categories- timed and non-timed. The results of the test scores for each of the six hundred students in the sample were also classified into a pass or fail category. In order to determine if there was a difference in student performance, a chi-square test of independence was performed for each of the demographic variables. The results presented the frequencies of occurrence of each of the demographic variables in conjunction with the type of test taken (Timed or non-timed) and the results of the test (pass or fail). It can be concluded that there is a difference in student performance on the timed versus non-timed GED test as was indicated by the findings of this research. The students in the non-timed group performed better in almost all instances than those in the timed group. Therefore, it is suggested that a non-timed test would have improved the test scores or would have provided many individuals an opportunity to improve their performance.