Test Administration Conditions of the English Placement Test of the Iranian National PhD Entrance Exam: Are the PhD Exam CandidatesSatisfied

Test administration conditions, namely, the timing of the test, the testing venues and the exam proctors/inspectors areinfluential factors that may introduce construct-irrelevant variance to a test, if ignored, and therefore render a testinvalid, especially in the case of high-stakes tests. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the satisfaction ofthe PhD exam candidates with the administration conditions of the English Placement Test (EPT) of the NationalIranian PhD Entrance exam, focusing on the three above mentioned factors. The timing factor was investigated from theperspectives of suitability of the time, that is, morning administration, evening administration and time delay inadministration. The testing venue included the location of testing venues, commuting, finding seats, ventilation andlighting of the venues and finally, the proctor/inspector factor looked into the presence of the inspectors, satisfactionwith the behavior of the proctors, peacefulness of the session, refreshments and finally the possibility of cheating. Thedata were collected by a sixteen item questionnaire which was distributed among 105 PhD exam candidates fromdifferent courses, English department ,mathematics department and politic department both males and females, inEsfahan Khorasgan university. The result show that only English department learners were satisfied with all threefactors and the entire exam administration process and this study is useful for test takers to consider view point of testgivers based on their needs.

Keywords:

Test Administration Conditions , English Placement Test