Student opinions and faculty concerns were confirmed with the results of a survey of Elements of Writing students which expressed their feelings about the Junior English Proficiency Essay Test, a one-hour mandatory exam.
Elements of Writing, or English 414, is the class students must take if they do not pass the JEPET.
The JEPET/414 Survey revealed that 91 percent of the students felt a one-hour writing exam can not give a fair estimate of their writing ability.
However, repeated studies done by the Educational Testing Service, a national organization that creates and evaluates tests, has shown that a longer test would not change the results of the test, according to Composition Coordinator Catharine Lucas. Of equal concern to faculty members is that 70 percent of the 584 students currently enrolled in English 414 are seniors who have put off the exam and class, according to the study conducted by JEPET Coordinator Deborah Swanson.
"The goal of the exam is to identify those students that need support in their upper division writing courses," Swanson said. "We need to ensure that they get that support early on."
Swanson also added that she would like to research whether any studies have been done in regards to giving students more time to plan on writing any particular topic rather than more time to write the essay.
The exam requires students to "construct a well organized and developed essay" on a topic that is not known until the test is administered, according to the JEPET information pamphlet.
JEPET was implemented after a Dartmouth study showed that most students' writing abilities "steadily decline" after finishing their freshman writing course.
Junior composition classes used to be mandatory for all students until the university implemented JEPET, eliminating the need and cost of the course. Approximately 60 percent to 67 percent of students consistently pass JEPET.
Eighty-four percent of the students surveyed agreed their writing needed improving and indicated they would prefer a choice in topics.
"We try very hard to make our topics not only accessible but fair to a diverse student population like this so that people in a particular discipline are not advantaged over people in another discipline," Swanson said.
"We pretest all topics in a number of classes, either they are thrown out, readjusted or pre-tested again. A topic never goes out to a student that says "we feel you should be able to write on this," Swanson said.
In addition to the survey, several English lecturers are involved in a volunteer task force to review the JEPET, First Year Composition, Second Year Composition and the Elements of Writing courses. The task force is in preliminary stages and may not see results until spring 1996 semester.