A Mathematics Test as a Chemistry Placement Test OMAR C. HELD

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

THE University of Pittsburgh chemistry department offers two general inorganic chemistry courses for the University students. One of these courses is designed for students who have had high-school chemistry, and the other for those who have not.

This method of admitting students to the more ad- vanced course in inorganic chemistry has not been en- tirely satisfactory to the chemistry staff. The fact that a student has presented a unit of high-school chemistry is not a good index of his ability to function satisfactorily in the more advanced inorganic course. Some students do quite well, while others are incapable of doing the work in this course, and should probably be enrolled in the course with those who have not had high- school chemistry.

In view of the present unsatisfactory method of placing students in chemistry, the s t d members have been looking about for a better placement technic. They feel that a chemistry placement test would not quite meet the situation, as the students' inability to function satisfactorily in the course is due fundament- ally to a weakness in mathematics.

At the present time, the University is giving a mathe- matics placement test to all freshmen who expect to take mathematics. The author wondered if this test could not also be used for a similar purpose for chemis- try.

A group of 269 engineering freshmen who entered the University over a period of three years, who were placed in this more advanced inorganic chemistry on the basis of their having had a high-school course, and who had also taken the mathematics placement -test, were selected for study.

We are primarily interested in finding which of these students should have been placed in the course with those students who had had no high-school chemistry. It was assumed that those who made "D" and "F" grades in the f i s t semester of the more advanced in- organic chemistry course had poor preparation for the course. It was also assumed that those who did "C" grade of work had a fair background for the course, and those who made "A" and "B" grades had good prepara- tion.

The mean mathematics placement test score was computed for each group, that is the "D, F" group, the "C" group, and the "A, B" group. Tables 1 and 2 summarize the data.

TABLE 1 MATABIAT~CB PLACBHSNZ SCOEB~ OF S ~ D B N T S IN THB MORB ADVANCBD

INOROANIC CBBMISTBY COUBSB IN Tnam FIRST SBXBSTBR

ChcmZslry Number of Meon Molhmolirr Crodc Sludrnls Placcmcnt Scare

TABLE 2 R S L I A B ~ W on TBB D ~ F B ~ ~ C B S OI TBB M B ~ S OP TEE T H ~ B B GROUPS

Differmcr

A ~ l ~ o l Rdiabilily Rdinbililyof Grodc GrauP Di f f~rmcr o j Diff'rmrc Diffwcnrr

In each instance there is a statistically reliable differ- ence between the groups. This would seem to indicate that our mathematics placement test might be used as a chemistry placement test to good advantage.