Effects of Font Size in Standardized Testing Research Paper

Effects of Font Size in Standardized Testing - Research Paper Example In an experiment to determine how types of font and font sizes affect people’s ability to read as well as the time they take to read a given piece of writing, researchers reported that font size of 14 is more legible than font size of 12. Similarly, people could read faster under font size 14 as compared to font size 12 (Bernard, Liao and Mills n.p.). This identifies impacts on ability to understand and respond to written materials such as written tests and is essential in determining effectiveness of a test. A test on course content is for example effective when it is free from confounds such as font size barriers. This paper investigates existence of font size effect on standardized tests. It aims at determining existence of a significant relationship between font size in tests and students’ performance. Such a relationship will establish a basis for determination of the most efficient font size for testing potentials and will allow for accurate determination of stude nts’ abilities through written tests. Results of the research are further applicable to employers in their employee selection process. It allows them an efficient basis for determining recruiters’ accurate potentials. ... In this experiment, font size defines the size with which words are presented in tests, while students’ performance defines students’ scores from tests. The research anticipates a significant positive relationship between the variables. Methods Participants The research participants will be a group of psychology students. A sample size of 45 students will be used. Materials Research materials will include sets of examination materials; test papers with different font sizes, answer booklets, and pens. Design The research proposes a quasi-experimental design with a within group testing. The sample will form a single group that will be subjected to repeated tests. Stratified random sampling design will be applied in generating the research sample because of its advantages of generating a representative sample without inducing bias (Lim and Ting 14- 17). Procedure Ethical approval will be obtained for the research before seeking the school administration’s consent fo r implementation. Stratified random sampling method will then be used to select students from different psychology classes but who share a common unit. The sampled students will then be informed of the scope of the research, its application, and involved ethical issues before asking for their voluntary consent to participate. The participants will then be subjected to an examination, under normal test conditions, but with different font size print outs that will be randomly allocated to participants. The fonts will be 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. The procedure will be repeated for four different tests. Quantitative analysis will be used for the data. Descriptive statistics will be generated to identify characteristics of students’ performance by