Abstracts Education

An experiment to ascertain the effect of maturation and educational experience on Air Force Officer Qualifying Test scores: Air Force Officer qualifying Test scores

by Horton Lawrence Fross

The United States Air Force uses a test constructed by Air Force personnel to test all individuals seeking entrance into Air Force officer training programs. This test is titled "The Air Force Officer Qualifying Test" (AFOQT). There are two major classes of candidates who are required to take the test: the college graduate who applies for admittance to the Officer Training School (OTS) located at San Antonio, Texas, and the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) cadet located in detachments on college and university campuses throughout the United States. In the fall of 1967 officials of the Testing Branch, Headquarters, Air Force ROTC, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, noticed that college graduates applying for OTS were scoring approximately twenty points higher on the AFOQT than were Air Force ROTC cadets. The question was asked, "Why should there be such a wide variance in test scores on the same test by two seemingly comparable groups?" One answer proposed was that the college graduate was two to three years older than the cadet and in those extra years had gained maturity and valuable educational experience that enabled him to elevate his score by an average of twenty points. It was the purpose of this study to determine empirically what effect two to three years of maturation and educational experience have on scores obtained on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. The test-retest method was used. Four hundred fifteen cadets who had been previously identified as either ground officer candidates or flying officer candidates and whose initial AFOQT test scores as freshmen were available to the Test Control Section, Testing Branch, Headquarters, AFROTC Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, were retested within 150 days of completion of degree requirements to coincide with Officer Training School eligibility. The cadets were selected from AFROTC detachments nationwide and from all type institutions to insure a valid and representative sample. After retesting, comparisons were made between Officer Quality Composite, Pilot Composite, and Navigator- Technical Composite scores and significant differences, if any, established and recorded. Twelve conclusions were made, based on the thesis data, that generally support the basic hypothesis.