ABSTRACT
Attypicalcollegesanduniversities,weoftenfindthatscoresonacollegeadmissionstest,suchastheCollegeBoard'sSAT-Verbal,correlate modestlywithfreshmanGPAsincollege.Wewouldnotbesurprisedto getaPearsonrof.45.Thistranslatesintoacoefficientofdeterminationof .20,whichmeansthatanrof.45is20%betterthananrof0.00,whichis whatwe'dgetifwepullednamesoutofahattodecidewhomtoadmitto ouruniversity. 1Nowlet'ssupposethatwedecidethat20%isgoodenough towarrantusingthetestforselectingamongtheapplicantswhoapplyto ouruniversity.Howcanweusethistesttomakedecisionsaboutindividualapplicants?(NotethatPearsonrsandcoefficientsofdeterminatiotellus onlyabouttrendsacrossgroups.)Theansweristousethetechnique calledlinearregression.
