In this study, we conducted a survey of all tertiary level institutions in Ireland to find out how many of them use diagnostic tests, and what kind of mathematical content areas and topics appear on these tests. The information gathered provides an insight into what instructors expect students to know on entry to university and what they expect students to have difficulty with. In total, 12 diagnostic tests from 11 Irish institutions were collected during the study. An item-by-item analysis was carried out on each diagnostic test to determine the content areas and topics that are assessed on the diagnostic tests and to identify any additional knowledge required for successful completion. We compare the tests administered in the university sector and the Institute of Technology (IT) sector of the Irish tertiary level education system. In addition, current diagnostic tests are compared with two tests from the 1980s to see if the level of mathematical preparedness expected of first-year students has changed over time. Our analysis is situated in a discussion of previous research on diagnostic testing both nationally and internationally.

中文翻译：

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爱尔兰高等教育数学诊断测试的性质和流行程度

在这项研究中，我们对爱尔兰所有高等教育机构进行了调查，以了解其中有多少人使用诊断测试，以及这些测试中出现了哪些数学内容领域和主题。收集到的信息可以深入了解教师希望学生在进入大学时了解什么以及他们希望学生在哪些方面遇到困难。在研究期间，总共收集了来自 11 个爱尔兰机构的 12 个诊断测试。对每个诊断测试进行逐项分析，以确定在诊断测试中评估的内容领域和主题，并确定成功完成所需的任何其他知识。我们比较了爱尔兰高等教育系统的大学部门和理工学院 (IT) 部门的考试。此外，将当前的诊断测试与 1980 年代的两项测试进行比较，以了解一年级学生的数学准备水平是否随时间而变化。我们的分析位于对国内和国际诊断测试先前研究的讨论中。