The Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT) originally consisted of 150 items distributed among six subtests: WORD, which measures Swedish word comprehension; DS, which measures quantitative reasoning ability; READ, which measures Swedish reading comprehension; DTM, which measures the ability to interpret diagrams, tables and maps; GI, which measures general knowledge; and STECH, which measures general study skills. All of the subtests were constructed at Umeå University.
Since the spring semester of 1991 the SweSAT has been open to all candidates to higher education, which increased the number of test takers from approximately 10 000 per year to approximately 130 000 at the most.
In 1992 the subtest STECH was exchanged for a test in English reading comprehension, ERC, which was constructed by University of Gothenburg. In 1996 additional changes were made. The subtest GI was removed and the WORD-test was increased from 30 to 40 items.
From 1996 the SweSAT consisted of 122 multiple choice items distributed among five subtests, as well as an additional subtest consisting of newly constructed items – from any of the other five subtests – which are trialed for use in later administrations of the test, but that are not included in the test-takers’ results. To ensure that the test-takers make an honest attempt at solving the trial items they are not told which the trial test is.
The latest larger change to the test occurred in 2011. From the fall administration that year the test consists of 160 multiple choice items distributed among eight subtests. These are gathered in two verbal and two quantitative test blocks, each block taking 55 minutes.
The verbal blocks contain items from WORD, READ, ERC, and the new subtest SEC, sentence completion. The quantitative blocks contain items from DS and DTM, as well as the new subtests QC, quantitative comparisons, and XYZ, mathematical problem-solving. In addition, a fifth block consisting of trial items is included.
Normed score
To facilitate comparisons of scores from different test administrations – the results are valid for five years – the raw scores (number of correct answers) are normed against a scale from 0.00 to 2.00, with increments of 005.
The average normed score for the test is usually around 0.87 with a standard deviation of about 0.40, which means that approximately two thirds of the test-takers achieve a normed score in the interval between 0.50 - 1.30 and that 95% achieve a score between 0.20 and 1.70. To achieve the best result, 2.00, one would have to score at least 145-150 points out of 160, which about 0.1% of the test-takers manage to do.
The use as a selection tool
The Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT) plays a significant role in the Swedish admission system. Those applying for higher education must first have the qualifications required for admission, which are generally obtained through upper secondary school studies or equivalent. When there are more qualified applicants than available study places, a selection process takes place. The selection is primarily based on the merit value from upper secondary school grades, but also on the results of the SweSAT. Applicants who have both upper secondary school grades and have taken the SweSAT are placed in two 'queues' or selection groups. One selection group ranks applicants by their merit value, and the other ranks applicants by their standardized SweSAT results.
Universities must admit at least one-third of the applicants from each group*. If an applicant has taken the SweSAT and is thus in both selection groups, the place is allocated from the group where the applicant is ranked highest. If an applicant has valid test results from multiple test occasions, the best result is counted. This means that those applying to university have nothing to lose by taking the SweSAT.
*This regulation does not apply to private universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics.
After the Test
Scoring
After the test, answer sheets are sent to Umeå University for scoring. The scoring is done using computers and follows carefully developed routines to ensure maximum security.
The marks on the answer sheet are registered by an optical reader. The reader is highly advanced and can distinguish between dark and light marks with great accuracy. For example, if you have erased a mark but not completely removed it and then marked another answer for the same question, the reader can easily distinguish that the erased box is lighter than the other. The darker mark is registered as your answer. If there are two marks that are almost equally dark, they are reviewed manually.
For each correct answer, you receive a raw score. Incorrect or omitted answers give zero points. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.
Norming procedure of the New Test
The norming procedure of the SweSAT ensures that, regardless of the test occasion and other test-takers, it is equally easy or difficult to achieve a certain standardized score at different test occasions.
The normed score is not absolute; the process is repeated after each new test. This is not done to make the normed score dependent on how other test-takers perform, so the score is not relative in that sense. The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that it is always equally easy or difficult to achieve a certain normed score, regardless of the test occasion (and regardless of the results of other test-takers). Each test is entirely new, and even though there are trial results from previous test-takers, we cannot be entirely sure that the difficulty level is exactly the same as in previous tests.
The norming procedure is conducted twice, once for the verbal section and once for the quantitative section.
The average of these two normed scores constitutes the final score used for admission. This average was rounded to one decimal place in the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012, but since the fall of 2012, this rounding is no longer done. Therefore, the test result is now reported on a scale between 0.00 and 2.00.
