Does successful test participation require investment in costly commercial preparation programs? Our study suggests that the official recommendations are on a par with commercial preparation.
The initial issue:
Identical official preparation materials notwithstanding, French-speaking participants achieved lower scores, on average, on the Swiss aptitude test for medical studies (EMS) compared to German-speaking participants. A supposed cause was the exclusive availability of commercial offers in German. Surveys showed, however, that also the use of official materials was somewhat less intensive, in French-speaking cantons.
Our main findings:
- Following an intensification of offered test runs in the canton of Fribourg in 2022, German and French speakers from the canton of Fribourg no longer differed beyond unsystematic variation, while other French-speaking participants only improved slightly.
- A second intervention in 2023 involved the publication of exercises for a specific group of tasks for which differences between the language groups were particularly pronounced. After this intervention, the gap between German- and all French-speaking participants narrowed further.
- Based on these findings, we conclude that the preparation with official materials is effective and on a par with preparation with commercial offers and that the added value of the latter should therefore be limited.
Practical implications:
- Offering comparable preparation opportunities for all language groups is a means of increasing test fairness.
- In this way, institutions can reduce factors that systematically bias inferences regarding performance criteria (i.e., future grades) thereby enhancing the predictive validity of the used procedure.