CAAP Tests for First-year Students

What are you being asked to do? Participate in a University research project by taking a short test that measures either your critical thinking or general writing skills.

Why are you being asked to do this? The UI is part of a national effort to develop an information warehouse for prospective students and their families to use in their college search. Average scores from the College Assessment of Academic Ability (CAAP) tests will be used to demonstrate the UI’s strength in developing core learning skills in comparison to other institutions.

Who is being asked to test? First-year University of Iowa students.

What do you get for participating? When you take a test, you will receive a $20 Iowa City/Coralville gift certificate. If you take both tests, you will receive $40. The gift certificates are good at over 300 businesses and restaurants.

In addition, if you score at or above the national average, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate.

How much time will this take? Each test is forty minutes with the entire session taking less than an hour. You will be randomly assigned either the Critical Thinking or Essay Writing test.

What are the tests like? Critical Thinking – 32 item multiple-choice test with 4 reading passages. Each passage presents one or more arguments which you will be asked to analyze.

Writing – Consists of two short writing assignments (20 minutes each). You will be asked to formulate and support an opinion about an issue.

Does this affect your UI academic record? No, scores from these tests have no impact on your UI record. The only score that will be reported is an average on each test for the entire group of first-year students.

Do I have to sign-up and when will the tests be administered? No, just stop by the Exam Service between the hours of 8:30am and 3:30pm from December 1^st through December 11^th, whenever it’s convenient for you.

Where’s the Exam Service? The Exam Service is located on the 3^rd floor of the Jefferson Bldg. in downtown IC (129 E. Washington St.). The front door is located next to the Subway sandwich shop – come to the third floor and check in with the receptionist.

Can I retest? You can only take each test once.

Test Early! We will stop testing once we reach our participation goal so plan on stopping by early in the two week test window.

Questions? Contact the Exam service at: exam-service@uiowa.edu, or 335-0356.

Print this page so you know where and when to drop in.