earticle

영어

The present study attempted to analyze the reading passages of CSAT(Collage Scholastic Aptitude Test) from 2016 to 2019, which included two years of data before and after criterion-referenced testing was introduced. The categories analyzed are as follows: descriptive analysis, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, cohesion index, readability index, and vocabulary frequency. Two different types of analysis were conducted by using web-based software, Coh-Metrix and VocabProfile. The ANOVA results suggested that there were no substantial differences between two different types of testing approaches: norm-referenced vs. criterion-referenced testing. Rather, the results showed considerable consistency in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, cohesion, or vocabulary frequency between the two types of testing. The study calls for further research on the construct validity of CSAT in order to provide rationale for the criterion-referenced testing and its usefulness in this educational context in Korea.