The Psychology National Course Exam accomplished by all of the last year students (seniors) in the year of the 2000 revealed a high correlation between the rank attributed to each course and its application/openings ratio (r = 0,69; p < 0,001). Therefore, it might be possible that the Psychology 2000 National Course Exam employed to rank all the Brazilian psychology courses is sensitive to general student differences imposed by the college entrance exam. To verify this possibility, 386 psychology first year students (freshmen) took the multiple-choice portion of the Psychology 2000 national exam. The freshmen were distributed among 4 courses selected according to its course rank (A, B, C and E). The results revealed that, in fact, coming freshmen students presented performance differences according to the course rank. Senior performance increment in relation to freshmen was differentiated among the four courses with different ranks. Senior students from courses ranked as A and B presented a larger increment in relation to senior students from courses ranked C and E. An item analysis revealed different validity degrees among the 39 multiple-choice questions. A re-analysis of the results, considering only 20 items that presented good validity, indicated an absence of performance difference among the coming freshmen distributed among the 4 courses. On the other hand, senior students from the different courses presented performance differences in accordance to the course rank. Finally, an analysis of the specific contents of each one of the 39 items of Psychology 2000 Course National Exam revealed a deficit in academic education among senior students in basic psychology subjects related to experimental psychology, scientific methodology and measurement and psychological evaluation.
Educational evaluation; construct validity; education in Psychology
