Harris, G. S. (1992). Assessing problem-solving skills on selected questions from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (Publication No. 9231377) [Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick

The test was given under three conditions: timed and verbalized, untimed and verbalized, untimed and solved silently.

Sixteen high school juniors participated in the study. The students were classified on ability level as measured by scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT).

The assessment consisted of three sets of verbal and quantitative questions obtained from the PSAT.

Upper level students and females employed more effective test taking behaviors and outperformed their counterparts on the actual test questions. Upper level black students outscored all other groups on both the skills measure and the test questions. Upper level students outperformed lower level students on the Verbal Skills measure and on the verbal test questions. Upper level black students attained the highest average score on Verbal Skills as well as on the verbal problem sets. On the math skills measure, upper level students outscored the lower level students. Verbalization during problem solving for verbal questions was not significant. However, thinking out loud while solving math problems did have a significant impact. Lower level students, especially lower level females, benefited from verbalizing during problem solving.