A direct assessment of consistency was made hy comparing
students' mean scores at a first writing with those
achieved at a second wnting 3 weeks later This period of
time was judged sufficient to preclude remembering exact
responses to questions from the first wnting Therefore,
test scores should he satisfactorily independent and
related pnmanly in terms of knowledge levels rather than
proximity of testing sessions In addition, students had not
been provided with sufficient new information during this
time to significantly influence their results on the second
writing The correlation coefficient between time 1 and
time 2 was 0 56 There were also no statistically significant
or meaningful differences in scores at first writing when
compared with scores at second vwitmg (i=0 19, d f =27,
P=0 99)