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The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, March 25, 1980-Page 7
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'U' Vice-Pres. questions release of exam
By LORENZO BENET
* Acting Vice-President for Academic
Affairs Alfred Sussman said yesterday
he has some reservations with the
recent and unprecedented release of
Graduate Record Examination Ap-
titude Test questions and answers three
months after the test was administered
nation-wide in January.
Although sample tests have been
available for many years, this is the fir-
st time the questions and answers of the
RE have ever been disclosed.
SUSSMAN, WHO is also chairman of
the Graduate Record Examination
Board, sees several problems with
releasing the exams shortly after they
were given. He said it would have a
serious effect on the compatibility of
exams over time.
"Currently, about one-fifth of the
questions in each exam have been used
before," explained Sussman. "This
allows us to measure the quality of
students taking the exam each year, as
well as to determine if one year the
exam has become easier than the year
before.
"After a test is made public,"
Sussman added, "it cannot be used
again." Therefore, he said, the number
of tests that can be released is deter-
mined by the current inventory of the
test editions and the rate at which new
ones can be developed.
HE ALSO added that the economic
consequences of test disclosure are also
serious. Sussman noted that it takes at
least $100,000 to develop a GRE exam
and only five secure exams exist for
this year. He predicted that all of these
"The cost of taking an exam will rise
and the number of times the exam is
given will decrease," Sussman said.
'(:iirreniiiii;(11)4)11 Otte- f ii, of 11 4 f te tu'tiO ls in eneli exam !tar('
been iisel hrf or4' . . . Afte~r a test is madue !nbll(. i cannot n be used(
In(1lil.
-Actaing JVice I'res.idcn ri ,foe .4ealwde,,,ie
the analytical portion of the exam. He
said that should the GRE be forced out
of existence, or its credibility
diminished, students from lesser known
schools or who are "late bloomers"
would be at a disadvantage because
GRE exams are the "great levelers" of
the educational world.
NEW YORK State Senator Kenneth
LaValle, one of the proponents of the
New York Admissions Testing Law that
requires the release of test questions
and answer sheets, said that low-
income students will have access to
the tests and test questions without
having to pay hundreds of dollars to
testing agencies that coach students on
how to take the exams.
In an article he wrote in Today's
Education, LaValle said that in the past.
few years he has witnessed a growing'
movement for open government and for
closer scrutiny of public agencies. He
concluded that the public's desire for
more information about standardized
tests is, in part, a product of this
movement. 4
Currently, less than 250 requests have "
been made for the materials. Order.'
forms for the 40-page booklet and an-
swer sheet were mailed to all test
takers with their test results in early
February. A booklet containing the
questions and answers used in the April
26 and 28 GRE examination will be
available to anyone after July 1.
The booklet costs $2 per copy. For
$3.50, examinees can also obtain a
photocopy of their answer sheet.
exams will be exposed in a single year
of test administration, resulting in
some disadvantages for students.
In addition, Sussman
there is a problem
questions for the GRE,
stressed that
making new
especially for
3
Olympics proposal nixed
Ball calls for shift
in allied defense load
LfDIES
"'MIGHT.
at
1140 South University
668-8411
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Carter apparently has rejected a
proposal by American athletes who
have suggested they can participate in
the Moscow Olympics and still protest
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Members of the Athletes Advisory
ouncil to the U.S. Olympic Committee
roposed over the weekend a plan that
would allow American athletes to com-
pete in the Summer Games, but boycott
awards ceremonies.
BUT A WHite House aide, who asked
that he not be identified, said yesterday
a similar proposal was considered two
months ago, before Carter called for a
complete boycott of the Games. The
aide said the proposal was rejected.
The official said he had not studied
She suggestion made by the Athletes
dvisory Council, but added, "It's ob-
viously unacceptable. The president
has made his decision."
On Friday, about 100 athletes were
summoned to the White House for
briefings on the administration's
boycott plans and were told by Carter
that the decision to stay away from the
Moscow Games was not negotiable.
"I CAN'T SAY at this moment what
other nations will not go to the Summer
lympics in Moscow," Carter told the
athletes. "Ours will not go. I say that
not with any equivocation. The decision
has been made."
But the advisory council said it felt its
proposal ,-to, boycott Olympic
ceremonies would have the effect Car-
ter wants while not denying Americans
their chance to compete in the Games.
"We feel, consistent with President
Carter's position, that a visible,
peaceful demonstration is the most ef-
ective means by which the world and
the world's athletes can present this
message to the people of the Soviet
Union," the advisory council said.
UNDER THE plan the council
proposed, American athletes would not
participate in the opening and closing
Olympic parades or show up to receive
medals. The Americans also would
arrive in Moscow just before they were
to compete and would leave im-
mediately after, shunning tourist ac-
tivities.
PresidentCarter has insisted the
United States boycott the Moscow
Olympics to display displeasure over
the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
The actual decision not to enter an
American team in the Games must be
made by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The committee has said it will respect
the wishes of the president'but has yet
to take the final action. The U.S. com-
mittee's House of Delegates meets in
Colorado April 11-13, at which time a
decision is expected to be made. The
entry deadline is May 24.
Reagan win expected
in N. Y. GOP polling
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Ronald
Reagan.campaigned yesterday through
the bleak, late-winter landscape of up-
state New York in a last day's pitch for
delegates in the state's presidential
primary election.
The former California governor
refused at a news conference to predict
how well he would do today. "I'd rather
not get into the numbers game," he
said.
BUT HIS CHIEF aide in New York,
Roger. Stone, predicted Reagan would
get at least 70 and possibly 80 of the
state's. 123 delegates to the Republican
National Convention at Detroit this
July.
At a rally in Auburn, with delegates
who are pledged, t support him standing
at his side, Reagan said, "My name
won't be on the ballot. Their names will
be. Vote for them."
In.New York, the candidates are
represented by individual proposed
delegates. Voters must know the
delegates' affiliations to be able to vote
for Reagan or his GOP rival in New
York, George Bush, the former U.N.
ambassadordand Texas congressman.
GOP candidate John Anderson, the
Illinois congressman, has no delegate
slate in New York.
At a news conference, Reagan was
asked about a published letter written
by several California Republicans
criticizing his claims to have saved
millions of dollars in welfare costs
during his eight years as governor of
that state.
Of one of the letter writers, whom
Reagan did not identify, he said, "I
hope he is proven innocent of the ob-
scene phone calls he is charged with in
California. That's kind of a dirty trick
bringing that up, but I wanted
everything out on the table."
Reagan also refused to say where he
would trimggovernment spending to
save money inthe federal budget. And
he criticized the time it takes to license
a nuclear power plant in the United
States as a result of environmental and
other restrictions.
Besides leading in New York, Reagan
also was given a chance of doing well in
neighboring Connecticut, which also
holds a primary election today,
although George Bush, a Connecticut
native, was favored there.
LONDON (AP)-George Ball, former
U.S. undersecretary of, state, said
yesterday that Japan and West
Germany-two nations that have
benefitted from redistribution of
economic resources-should contribute
more to the West's global defense.
Ball said Japan should build two
aircraft carriers in a new version of
America's wartime lean-lease system.
He did not say precisely how he thought
the Germans should increase their
contribution.
WEST GERMAN land forces already
are the strongest among allied powers
in Europe.
BALI. MADE HIS remarks in an
address to the Trilateral Commission
holding a three day conference here.
Takeshi Watanabe, a former
Japanese foreign minister, said later in
an interview that Ball's proposal
shockedthe Japanese delegates even
though Japan recognizes it should
increase its economic and security
committments to the non-communist
world. .
THE TRI-LATERAL Commission,
founded in 1972, brings together leading
North American, European and
Japanese personalities to discuss
relations between their regions and the
global military balance. Most of the 150
delegates are influential public figures.
Ball said the redistribution of wealth
in recent years inevitably will generate
pressures on Japan and West Germany
to contribute more to global security.
Watanabe said of Ball's idea, "It will
have some shock treatment effect and I
don't think Japan can act immediately."
-f
The Eighteenth Century Semester Presents:
"Print Culture and
Enlightenment Thought"
Professor Elizabeth Eisenstein
Department of History, University of Michigan
TUESDAY, MARCH 25-4:00 p.m.
CLEMENTS LIBRARY
TONIGHT AT CINEMA GUILD
Our Festival of contemporary Polish films continues tonight
with SPIRAL at 7:00. DEATH OF A PRESIDENT at 9:05.
Polish with English subtitles.
Wednesday: SCARFACE 1932
Thursday: Kubrick's LOLITA
Friday: THE GODFATHER
Saturday: GODFATHER, PART 11
Each Show $1.50
COLD ARCH. AUD.
Each Show $1 .50 OLD ARCH. AUD.
I I
1
-
"From now on
anybody who
owns a
factory
that makes
radioactive
waste has to
take it home
with him to
his house."
He loves you. Do what he says.
A MARTIN BREGMAN Production
ALAN ARKIN
"SIMON"
with ADELINE KAKN
xecutive Producer LOUIS A. STROLLER- Produced by MARTIN BREGMAN
Screenplay by MARSHALL BRICKMAN
Story by MARSHALL BRICKMAN & THOMAS BAUM
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