The leading student admissions test for Career Colleges is the Scholastic Level Exam (SLE). This blog explains what it is, what it’s used for, and how it can help your school admit students who are likely to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
Let’s talk about Wonderlic’s Scholastic Level Exam, or SLE. We get number of people asking what it is, what it’s used for, and how it can help their school, so I thought I’d share some information with you.
First, the SLE is a cognitive abilities test. If you don’t know what cognitive ability is, check out our blog – we have lots of great information about cognitive ability. But in essence, cognitive ability determines a person’s ability to learn, understand instructions and solve problems – all critical factors when you’re thinking about enrolling students!
SLE score requirements can be tied to each program based on the curriculum and ultimately, the career each program feeds into. It is used by both large and small schools and, since being introduced more than 40 years ago, has become the number one student admissions test for Career Colleges.
So how can the Wonderlic SLE benefit your school and your students? Well, let’s look at some numbers.
We conducted a study on over 11,000 students that were admitted to various colleges using the SLE. We found that SLE scores were significantly and positively related to GPA. Take a look at this chart…
As you can see, the higher the score on the SLE, the higher the student’s GPA. In fact, this pattern was consistent across many types of educational programs, including business administration, pharmacy technician, medical and dental assistants…
But it goes further than just GPA! A 2008 study involving over 1.3 million students found that cognitive abilities tests are predictive of important student outcomes such as performance, completion, and the ability to pass a licensing exam. They are the number one predictor of student success.
Also, strong evidence indicates that cognitive ability is related to students’ future job success and their likelihood of staying at a job longer. We know these factors are important to you, because individuals who are not successful in their jobs are also more likely to default on their loans.
In addition, we discovered that there is a relationship between student cognitive ability and loan default rates in another study we conducted over two decades ago! We found that lower ability students had a higher loan default rate. This suggests that school administrators could significantly reduce default rates by recruiting and selecting students who closely match the ability level associated with students’ chosen vocation.
So there you have it – the Wonderlic Scholastic Level Exam – a very beneficial tool for enrolling students who will do well in school – and beyond.
