Why the NCE?
National Comparative Exams are certified exams with guaranteed regularity of administration and objectivity of results. Since 2006 many universities have been joining to use the NCE in their admission processes. For 2009/2010, it is expected that the NCE will be used by 60 faculties. We anticipate that 40,000 university applicants will take the tests.
The interest of most universities is concentrated on the Test of General Academic Prerequisites (GAP). However, students also have the possibility to sit for exams in the subjects of English, German, French, mathematics, nature sciences (as subtests of biology, physics, chemistry) and social sciences. Tests are administered in Czech, though in the case of sufficient interest we are able to ensure localisation of the tests for a any language/country.
Advantages for the faculty
National Comparative Exams were created so that faculties would have the possibility to draw from them objectively and transparently obtained information on applicants who have declared their intention to study in such faculties. The tests are intended to restrict the influence of chance in the process of deciding who will be accepted and who will not, to create more transparent conditions for applicants and, among other things, to contribute to the better utilisation of applicants’ academic potential within the Czech Republic.
By agreeing to use the NCE, the faculty does not in any case lose control over acceptance tests. It is always the faculty that decides on the acceptance criteria, selects the test and, as the case may be, sets its own weights in its evaluation, and above all accepts or rejects the student. Scio only provides to the faculty information to aid its decision-making and the manner in which such information will be used is at the faculty’s discretion.
How the faculty proceeds
In the Czech Republic, there is a full range of procedures by which a university can utilise NCE results: from use of the NCE as a single acceptance criterion to use of NCE results as only an indicator.
The simplest way is to use the test results as an indicator:
The faculty’s acceptance process remains practically unchanged; it only adds an appropriately selected criterion which uses NCE results to its acceptance guidelines. The faculty typically stipulates the subject(s) and the limits of the NCE results whereby the applicant is accepted without acceptance tests or the applicant is given bonus points. The applicant’s participation in the NCE is voluntary, not mandatory.
Use of this model does not present any risk for the faculty, nor does it increase the costs of the acceptance process. The only work involved is entry of the NCE results, provided by Scio, into the faculty’s database of applicants.
