WPE passing rate at 89.3 %

Students taking Saturday's Writing Proficiency Ex amination have about an 89.3 percent chance of passing.

That figure, based on last yearŐs WPE results, comes from the 1993-94 WPE Status Report, filed by Donald Coan, director of institutional research at Cal State Long Beach.

Another study p erformed by James Neal, director of testing and evaluation services, found that between 1979 and 1990, 89 percent to 95 percent of students taking the WPE for the first time passed.

"The purpose of the WPE is to assess the writing adequacy of studen ts seeking a degree at CSULB," said Bob Finney, instructor at the radio, television and film department, and a conductor of WPE workshops.

Students must take the WPE by the time they attain 75 units and must pass it to graduate. If they do not pa ss, they must repeat the test until they do. Neal said students have been known to repeat the WPE as many as 21 times. He stressed that this is not advisable.

"The more times the student attempts the exam, the (more the) chances of passing goes dow n," said Neal. "The people who donŐt pass are self-selected to take subsequent attempts. In other words, students with better language ability will tend to pass on the first attempt."

In order for students to pass, they must pass both the essay and the objective portions of the WPE.

In the essay portion, students are given a question or topic to write on and a time limit of 60 minutes. Topics are different for each exam and are chosen and developed by the faculty members who comprise the test development committee.

"They (the committee) develop possible topics and these topics are pre-tested to make sure they are accessible to the majority of students," said Charles May, WPE coordinator. "We try to make sure that theyŐre not gender-biased or ethnic-biased."

Essay questions are tested on students in upper-division interdisciplinary courses. May said that these courses are chosen as testing ground because they contain the same kind of students who take the WPE, those active in upper-division coursework.

The committee then reads the pre-test answers and assesses the degree of difficulty the students faced. Questions that are determined to be unfair are discarded. May said that the committee's standards are so stringent, last week they reviewed 10 questions and only four were accepted.

"The faculty are trained to read the essays straight through without making any marks," May said. "The first reader reads the paper and gives a score out of six. That score is masked and another faculty members reads it without knowing the first score and then grades it. Then itŐs given to a third reader. All three readers have to agree within one point of each other."

Essays are rated on a scale of one to six, six being the highest. A passing paper must score 11 out of 18. The objective portion is in multiple choice form and must be completed in 80 minutes. The first category tests grammar and usage. The second tests the students' ability to rewrite sentences. The third and fourt h categories require students to rearrange sentences.

Peter Chen, a business major who will take SaturdayŐs exam, has learned that the WPE has been successful in assessing students' writing skills.

"I talked to two or three of my friends (who took the exam). They said the essay is easy. They also said the objective is hard. I guess it really depends on your ability," he said.