New research carried out at the University supports the theory that American-style university entrance testing has significant value in assessing disadvantaged students, whose school grades often do not reflect their academic ability.
Researchers from the wider access study centre studied the hotly debated scholastic assessment test's (SAT) effectiveness in gauging the academic potential of students admitted onto the access summer school. In 63% of cases, the SAT accurately predicted whether students would perform above or below the class average.
As the academic potential of most access students had not been predicted by their traditional school examinations, the fact that 31% of the test-takers scored above American averages in verbal reasoning shows that the SAT can sometimes spot academic potential where school results have not.
Jennifer Leeder, from the wider access study centre said: "SATs could be a welcome addition to school assessments, particularly for disadvantaged students whose school grades don't generally reflect their ability. These positive results have encouraged us a great deal and we have won more funding to work on further tests with SATs next summer on a new cohort of students."
The SAT study was one of three research projects in widening participation, funded by the Sutton Trust and carried out over the last year by the University's wider access study centre. Collectively titled "emerging from exclusion through education to employment", the aim was to comprehensively assess the experience of non-advantaged students during their school years, through University and on into the workplace.
Although the research has been local in scale, Dr Leeder believes the results of the projects have potential to inform a whole spectrum of debates surrounding education and employment opportunities for bright students from non-privileged backgrounds.
She said, "Each of the projects is important in its own right and linking them in a unified piece of research gives us a comprehensive view of the manifold barriers to progression which are still faced by non-privileged students from school right through to employment."