A Study On The Rationality Of Test Taking Qualifications For CET-SET

College English Test-Spoken English Test (CET SET) has been administered sinceApril26th,1999. It has become an influential test and received increasing attention. Yet itis formulated from the very beginning that only those who get higher scores in CET havethe right to take part in the test. The present study tries to probe into the rationality of thetest-taking qualifications through analyzing the correlation between test takers’ CETscores and CET SET scores. The research questions to be addressed in this study are: first,why only the specified students have the right to take CET-SET? Is there some theoreticalor experimental basis for it? Second, is it necessary to adjust the qualifications for takingCET-SET? Third, if it is necessary to adjust the qualifications then how to do it?After the procedure of data collection, the research data were exported to SPSS17.0.Descriptive analysis and correlation coefficient were employed in order to investigate thethree research questions. The major findings of this study are shown as follows: Firstly,there is no theoretical or experimental basis for the restrictions. Yet there are manypossible reasons for setting the restrictions, this study has analyzed this phenomenon fromthe perspective of practicality. As far as human resources, financial resources and materialresources are concerned, it is really challenging to lift the restrictions. Secondly, it isnecessary to adjust the qualifications for taking CET-SET. It has been proved in this studythat there are some students whose CET scores are below the specified level, yet whoseoral ability is better than those who have attained the minimum CET scores. It isconfirmed that the students’ CET scores cannot represent their oral competence. If therestrictions have to be retained, then it would be more acceptable if the restrictions can beadjusted. Thirdly, through the correlation analysis of the selected test-takers’ scores, thisstudy has found that the Correlation Coefficient between SET scores and LW (listeningand writing subtests) scores is more significant and higher than other CorrelationCoefficients involved. In other words, the test-takers’ sum scores of the Listening Subsetand the Writing Subtest might be taken for reference.