Grant Study Men Devises Tests for Officer Selection

A new technique for the selection of officer candidates is described in a monograph recently put out by the Grant Study, a Harvard social research group of seven men. The new method, to supplement others, will save almost an hour and a half per candidate, and some of the tests developed are already being widely used.

The pamphlet, "Selection of Officer Candidates" describes not only the new methods but also the research done to evolve those new developments in picking out officer material. Besides experimenting with the Harvard ROTC and using their records for material, a commando group in England was also subjected to one of the physical tests.

Used Everywhere

The physical test, which is easily administered with little skill or special equipment in now being used all over the country, including the Naval Pre-Flight Training School at Chapel Hill. The personality interview has been used here as a preliminary test for Harvard V-1 candidates.

There are three different tests which determine the suitability of a candidate for officership. The first, an eight minute physical efficiency test, has been used here by the Hygiene Department. If consists of merely stepping up onto a stool twenty inches off the ground, and then down again, to the count of "up-2-3-4, up 2-3-4 the command 'up' coming every two seconds." The heart rate is measured immediately afterward and at regular intervals for 3rd minutes, and the rating is determined by a special formula.

The second part of the examination, the "Short Interview," is also called the "Ten Minute Interview" by students in V-1 who couldn't understand how they were sized up in so short a time with seemingly innocent and pointless questions. But far from that, the questions turn out to be quite searching, the an- swers quite revealing. The interview is divided into four categories, "Life, Work and Attitudes," "Activities," "Social Relationships," and "Emotional Traits."

"A brief inspection of the body build to determine characteristics of masculinity which have been found to be related to physical fitness and officer fitness" is the third part of the examination. The pamphlet contains pictures of men with different ratings to help with the grading.

These new techniques, or more accurately, new developments, were the result of long experience in the longer methods over a period of five years. Although they admit that their tests are perhaps not as thorough as the longer ones, the authors say that nevertheless, the "Step-up" test has an efficiency of 90 to 95 per cent as compared with other methods, and the other two tests have likewise proved their worth