Test review of Iranian university entrance exam: English Konkur examination

The present paper appraises a standardized test, the entrance exam of Iranian universities, known as “Konkur” that is administered annually as a means of gaining admission to higher education in Iran. This norm-referenced test is administered for students majoring in mathematics, experimental sciences, and humanities whose scores along their weighted GPAs in the last 3 years of high school are used as indicators of students’ rank. Based on the rank achieved, they would find the opportunity to select the highly regarded university for their education. Due to the importance of such a high-stake test which may bring about social and long-time consequences for the participants, the present paper tries to evaluate the test and its psychometrics aspects. It is ostensible that the exam provides a limited situation for measuring the participants “knowledge of language” rather than their “knowledge about language.” Therefore, the dimensionality and validity of the test are debatable. Thus, the present review tries to characterize Konkur examination and discusses the rooms for untouched aspects for the betterment of its quality.