Testing Nesrene I DLP. San Jose BS.

Psychology TF, 4:00pm-5:30pm

Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery (CPAB)

Author: Jean Maier Palormo, Peter Saville Contributor: National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales Staff Edition: illustrated Publisher: National Foundation for Educational Research in England & Wales, 1970 Decription of the test amd the factors, variables, characteristics, traits measured:
>This 75 minute tests contains the following sections :
>Programmer Aptitude Test measures your aptitude and potentials for programming profession. You are evaluated for your logical ability and skills to interpret specifications and documentations. Your level of logical skills, precision and reasoning determines your scores in programmer aptitude battery.

Skills Required
This aptitude test does not require you to be a master programmer but you need to have strong aptitude to handle programming job. A programmer aptitude battery measures: Your skill to interpret intricate specifications. Your logical ability to remove bottlenecks in the programming process. Your skill to focus your attention on minute details. Sometimes, ignoring a single symbol can result in destruction of a whole program. How much accurate you are? It is nothing more than a skill to learn to be accurate. Accuracy is important for programming of a professional application. Can you solve problems very quickly? You are often required to reason with symbols.

Main Areas
Attention To details
This area of the test offers you some complex expression. You are required to simplify the expression by applying the given rules. You cant do it without focusing your attention to the details.

Logical Ability
How do you solve the problems? You are offered questions which require you to follow some kind of logic. You have to display your understanding of the problem graphically. When you have deep desire for computer programming, you cant fail in this area.

Flowchart Logics
This section of Programmer aptitude test measures your ability to follow flowchart logic. Your concepts about simple looping are also tested. The programmers have, generally, to deal with long procedures where single keyboard can change the whole application. The flow charts help you to understand procedural logic behind the programs. If you can't understand simple illustrations then programming procedures would be far from your understandings. When you are capable to grasp basic concepts behind a flow chart will you tend to be a computer programmer.

Working according to specific instructions

These problems of programmer aptitude test gauge your ability to work according to the given specifications and, subsequently, to apply the correct solution. For example some alphabetic lists are given and are to be sorted according to some specific instructions. The data sorting is an important job in any database developing agency.

Problem-solving
How good you are at problem solving? A part of programmer aptitude test includes questions from mathematical aptitude tests.

Recognition of similarities and differences

While building applications you need to create primary and secondary relations. You can neither insert nor collect the required information in a presentable form without going throgh structures of tables, forms, triggers etc. The programmer aptitude tests measure your capability to distinguish between similar and different values. This also includes how one set instructions will impact another set. You may also be required to point out when an element of a set does not match the corresponding elements.

Normative Data: Percentile norms are listed by subtest and total score for the following job classifications:
trainees, experienced applicants, entry-level positions and community college students.

Validation Studies: Validation studies were conducted for the following organizations:
Computer service company Data processing college (students) 53 financial service companies Railroad company Retail catalogue company Retail organization Two banks Two computer manufacturing companies Two insurance companies Two research organizations Utility company Two test forms available (A and B) and are comparable and can be used for retesting. The Short Form of the CPAB includes only the Reasoning and Diagramming sections from the Long Form. The Long Form includes the following sections: Verbal Meaning, Reasoning, Letter Series, Number Ability and Diagramming. Reasoning and Diagramming were chosen for the Short Form because previous research and analysis demonstrated that these two components are the most valid predictors of computer programmer performance. The CPAB Long Form comes with a booklet and a separate answer sheet for the applicants responses. The CPAB Short Form is offered in a carboncopy booklet and the scoring is described to the administrator after tearing open the booklet to review the applicants responses.

Abstract:
EVELOPED TO AID MANAGERS OF DATA-PROCESSING CENTERS AND PERSONNEL DIRECTORS IN SCREENING PERSONS WITH APTITUDES FOR COMPUTER PROGRAMING, THE COMPUTER PROGRAMMER APTITUDE BATTERY (CPAB) INCLUDES DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TEST ADMINISTRATION, INTERPRETATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION. FIVE SEPARATELY TIMED TESTS (VERBAL MEANING, REASONING, LETTER SERIES, NUMBER ABILITY, AND DIAGRAMING), ARE PUBLISHED IN A REUSABLE BOOKLET AND ANSWERS ARE RECORDED ON A SELFSCORING SHEET. IF LOCAL PERCENTILE NORMS ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR PARTICULAR ORGANIZATION, CPAB PROVIDES NORMS AND GUIDELINES FOR SCORE INTERPRETATION. RESEARCH IS CITED IN SUPPORT OF THE CPAB--RELIABILITY COEFFICIENTS, TEST INTERCORRELATIONS, AND UNIQUE VARIANCE ARE COMPUTED FOR EACH TEST, WHILE ALL ITEMS ARE ANALYZED FOR DIFFICULTY LEVEL AND INTERNAL CONSISTENCY. THREE VALIDITY STUDIES REVEAL THAT THE BATTERY OF TESTS IS EFFECTIVE FOR PREDICTING TRAINING ACHIEVEMENT, BUT LESS CONCLUSIVE IN PROVIDING EVIDENCE FOR PREDICTING JOB PERFORMANCE. (SEVEN TABLES OF EXPERIMENTAL DATA, A TABLE OF PERCENTILE NORMS FOR COMPUTER PROGRAMER TRAINEES AND APPLICANTS AS WELL AS FOR EXPERIENCED PROGRAMERS AND SYSTEM ANALYSTS ARE INCLUDED.) THIS DOCUMENT IS AVAILABLE FROM SCIENCE RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC., 259 EAST ERIE ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 60611. (PT)