A study on testing reliability of 2013 musical aptitude test scores conducted by music education department in Uludag University

Abstract

Music Education is among Higher Education programs which accept their students according to their aptitude test scores. The aptitude tests are designed and applied specifically by the institution itself according to the specific needs and expectations of its education policy. Therefore, test contents, test formats, degree of difficulty and assessment criteria may vary accordingly. It is crucial for institutions to evaluate their test and examine its validity and reliability and they have to make the necessary changes when needed in order to sustain a better selection procedure. In accordance with this objective, this paper is an attempt to determine the reliability of the Musical Aptitude Test carried out by Music Education Department of Uludag University in 2013. To calculate the reliability, the Cronbach's Alpha is employed for the first part of the test, which only includes multiple choice questions and for the second part which is based on the performance of candidates, Kendall's W is carried out, since it measures the agreement among raters. The results indicate that the scores of Music Aptitude Test applied in 2013 have a high degree of reliability in terms of both parts of the test. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.