Research

For more than 20 years, Australian tertiary institutions have been utilising applicants’ STAT test scores, together with other information available during the admissions process, to make informed decisions about offering places in their courses.

The items included in STAT are developed by teams of test writers at ACER. All test questions must pass detailed scrutiny by panels of test writers, trial testing, analysis and final review. The content, style and duration of the test are determined to ensure that the test is relevant, fair, valid and reliable. The test may contain a small number of trial questions which will not be scored.

STAT test data is subjected to statistical analysis to check that each question has performed as required. Test questions in development are carefully scrutinised in an ongoing attempt to minimise gender, ethnic or religious bias, and to ensure that the test is culturally fair.

Each year thousands of prospective tertiary students sit one of the STAT tests used by tertiary institutions throughout Australia, for selection into various courses. The STAT team occasionally follows up a sample of these students to see how they progressed in their higher education studies and may contact candidates through the university of enrolment.

Additional information which we find useful for both research and test construction, includes candidates' country of birth, if other than Australia, and number of years in Australia, if born overseas. Space is provided on the STAT answer sheet for your response to these questions. Provision of this information is voluntary, but candidates are given an assurance that any use of their test records will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Candidate names will be separated from data in all cases.

Information regarding the way in which personal information (that is, names and attached data) is stored at ACER can be located at http://www.acer.org/privacy

For Universities

The article, "Evaluation of the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT)" was published in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 12 March 2010. The article can be accessed from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600800903575421 if your library has a subscription to HEPM.

"...The results affirm that STAT, through the provision of baseline and objective data, offers a valid and efficient means for ensuring that people who are capable of success at university are able to gain admission..."