Academic Achievement Tests (College Board AP® Psychology): Study Guide
Achievement and aptitude tests
Intelligence tests are not the only way to measure cognitive ability. Two other important types of test serve different purposes:
Achievement tests measure what a person already knows and assess current knowledge and skills that have been learned
E.g. end-of-year exams, the AP Psychology exam all measure what someone has already learned in a specific domain
Aptitude tests measure a person's potential to learn or perform in the future. They attempt to predict how well someone will perform in an area they may not yet have studied
E.g. the SAT and ACT are aptitude tests designed to predict how well a student will perform in college
Achievement tests | Aptitude tests | |
|---|---|---|
What they measure | Current knowledge and skills | Potential for future learning or performance |
Focus | What someone has already learned | What someone is capable of learning |
Example | AP exam, end-of-year test | SAT, ACT, aptitude screening |
Relationship to intelligence | Reflects both intelligence and educational opportunity | Intended to predict performance independently of prior learning |
An important distinction between achievement tests and intelligence tests:
Intelligence tests attempt to measure underlying cognitive ability independent of specific learned content
Achievement tests explicitly measure the product of learning
A student with less educational opportunity may score lower on an achievement test not because they have lower intelligence but because they have had fewer opportunities to acquire the knowledge being tested
Fixed and growth mindset
A significant factor influencing academic achievement is a person's beliefs about the nature of intelligence itself
A person may believe intelligence is fixed or can grow
Fixed mindset: the belief that intelligence is a fixed, innate trait that cannot meaningfully change
People with a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges for fear of appearing unintelligent, give up easily when they encounter difficulty, and interpret effort as a sign of low ability
E.g. a student with a fixed mindset who struggles with a math problem may conclude "I am just not a math person" and stop trying
Growth mindset: the belief that intelligence is malleable and can be developed through effort, practice, and learning from mistakes
People with a growth mindset tend to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, and view effort as the path to mastery
E.g. a student with a growth mindset who struggles with a math problem interprets the difficulty as an opportunity to learn and tries a different approach
Research by Carol Dweck has shown that students who adopt a growth mindset consistently achieve more academically than those with a fixed mindset, even when their baseline ability is similar
People can be taught to shift from a fixed to a growth mindset, and this shift has been shown to improve academic performance
The concept of mindset connects directly to fluid and crystallized intelligence:
A fixed mindset aligns with the belief that fluid intelligence is innate and cannot change
A growth mindset aligns with evidence that intelligence, particularly crystallized intelligence, can develop throughout life
Examiner Tips and Tricks
For Skill 1.B, achievement vs aptitude questions may describe a test and ask you to classify it
Focus on whether the test measures what someone already knows (achievement) or predicts future potential (aptitude)
For Skill 4.B, you may be asked to evaluate the claim that academic achievement tests are fair measures of ability
Use the distinction between achievement and intelligence, the influence of educational opportunity, and the role of stereotype threat to argue that achievement scores reflect more than raw ability
For Skill 2.D, consider the ethical implications of using aptitude test scores (such as the SAT) to determine access to higher education
Be prepared to evaluate whether such uses are appropriate given evidence of cultural bias and the influence of socioeconomic factors on test performance
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