Accuracy of Self-reported SAT and ACT Test Scores: Implications for Research

作者：Cole James S^*; Gonyea Robert M

来源：Research in Higher Education, 2010, 51(4): 305-319.

DOI：10.1007/s11162-009-9160-9

• Self-report accuracy
• Cognitive distortion
• Motivated distortion
• Higher education research
• SAT/ACT test scores

Because it is often impractical or impossible to obtain school transcripts or records on subjects, many researchers rely on college students to accurately self-report their academic record as part of their data collection procedures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of student self-reported academic performance. As expected the study finds overall validity of self-reported test scores to be high. However, correlations between self-reported and actual SAT scores are significantly lower than correlations for self-reported and actual ACT Composite scores. This study also confirms prior research which found that when students are inaccurate in reporting their scores, a disproportionate number of them over-report their scores. Also consistent with other studies, this study finds that lower achieving students for both tests are much less accurate when reporting their scores.