Alliedassault - View Single Post

SoLiDUS · 08-06-2005, 01:54 AM

Another thing that bothers me: most online tests will give you a score... sure, but it won't mention the standard deviation used for scoring. Most sites use a 24-point deviation so if you get 124, you're one deviation above average: professional tests will use either a 15 or 16-point scale so if you got 124 on that 24-point scale, your score on the 15-point scale is really 115. When people say "I got a 140 on that test", they're basically saying "I got 125 on a standard deviation of 15". Overinflation of scores aside, if people get 160 on a test and think they're Einstein's equal, they fail to realize his score was on a deviation of 15 whereas theirs was on a 24-point scale, making his score 196 on the same test they took. It's better to talk in percentiles.

	(#26)
SoLiDUS is Offline Senior Member Posts: 5,158 Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Gatineau, Qc, Canada	08-06-2005, 01:54 AM Another thing that bothers me: most online tests will give you a score... sure, but it won't mention the standard deviation used for scoring. Most sites use a 24-point deviation so if you get 124, you're one deviation above average: professional tests will use either a 15 or 16-point scale so if you got 124 on that 24-point scale, your score on the 15-point scale is really 115. When people say "I got a 140 on that test", they're basically saying "I got 125 on a standard deviation of 15". Overinflation of scores aside, if people get 160 on a test and think they're Einstein's equal, they fail to realize his score was on a deviation of 15 whereas theirs was on a 24-point scale, making his score 196 on the same test they took. It's better to talk in percentiles.