CHOICE AMONG ESSAY TOPICS: IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE AND VALIDITY

Abstract

This study assessed the ability of history students to choose the essay topic on which they can get the highest score. A second, equally important, question was whether the score on the chosen topic was more highly related to other indicators of proficiency in history than the score on the unchosen topic. Overall, for both US and European history, scores were about one-third of a standard deviation higher for the preferred topic than for the other topic. For US history, about 32% of the students made the wrong choice, that is 32% got a higher score on the other topic than on the preferred topic. In European history, 29% made the wrong choice. In the US history sample, the preferred essay correlated.40 with an external criterion score vs.34 for the other essay; in the European history sample, the preferred essay correlated.52 with the external criterion compared to.44 for the other topic.