Dear Dianne,
        I have the same problem, but no solution, however I can
give you pointers.
A-level grades are an indicator, accounting for about 35%-to 45%
of the variance in our first year class.
From the recent ILT worshop on retention by Jane Castles in
Belfast Castle (not under siege) and my own experience, the main
factors are moral and optimism and ability in that order.
Moral :- students need to be motivated and they need support to
keep up their morale, either from friends or family. If their
friends don't want to work and don't rate education, nor will
they.
Students need to be interested in the subject. If it is just the
thing they did best at school so they kept on with it, they will
drop behind. Entries from clearing who wanted to do a different
subject also lack motivation. We need a questionaire about
background to pick this up (psychologists please note).
Optimism (= depression)
Most failure is associated with depression. A depressed student
gives up and then falls behind. A pessimistic student falls
behind, then becomes depressed and gives up, where the optimist
either ploughs on and finishes, or even increases their effort
and so improves. A standard psychological test should highlight
a tendency to depression.
Ability is only measured poorly by A-levels because a
hardworking fool (I use the words advisedly) can get through by
coursework (helped by teacher quote " I can get her an E from
coursework even if she knows no chemistry"), rote learning, word
asociation, throwing keywords into answers, and endlessly
practicing the types of question that come up every year.
I suggest a straightforward old fashioned IQ test, bolstered by
questions that someone interested in your subject should be
expected to know the answers to from interest, not from rote
learning.

If these assesments are made and combined, with appropriate
weighting, I think we would have a good predictor of success and
failure.

Hugh Fletcher

On Tue, 16 Apr 2002 13:22:20 +0100 "Willis, Dianne [IES]"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi
>
> My name is Dianne Willis and I work at Leeds Metropolitan
University. >
> I am very interested in supporting year one students
academically and am looking to introduce some diagnostic testing
in year 1 to (hopefully) enable us to target extra support where
it is most needed.  Many of the tests I have seen relate
specifically to Key Skills and so far, these have not proved
very useful/predictive. > > Does anyone use any tests they could
recommend for me to trial? > > Dianne Willis > Principal
Lecturer > Leeds Metropolitan University > School of Information
Management > Beckett Park Campus > Leeds > LS6 3QS > > Tel 0113
283 2600 x4737

----------------------
Best wishes, Hugh Fletcher

Hugh Fletcher
School of Biology and Biochemistry
Queen's University of Belfast
97 Lisburn Road
Belfast
BT9 7BL

Tel. : +44 (0)28 90272084 Direct
    Fax (School office): +44 (0)28 90236505