Bureau of Tests Attempts to Find Proper Fields

Towards the beginning of April, while many Freshmen were desperately searching for a field of concentration and finding no hope in any om them, 175 Yardlings received a short, but highly interesting letter. To many the contents of the letter proved to be a godsend, to others, a new headache.

The letter suggested that "the Following fields, in order, would be the most suitable for you." It then went on to list three fields of concentration such as Anthropology, Music, and Philosophy, or Biology, Economics, and Architectural Sciences.

The letter continued, "This does not mean that you would be unable to handle other fields just as well; it means that, as far as I can tell . . . these are the fields that would come closest to satisfying your interests and abilities. I hope you find these suggestions helpful."

The suggestion of concentration was based on an analysis of two tests, the Kuder Preference Record and the Aptitude Survey, which these 175 Freshmen took during the winter.

The analyzer of the test scores and the initiator of this system of concentration advice is Henry S. Dyer '27, director of the University Office of Tests.

The Office of Tests, set up in 1945 under the direction of Dyer, deals with many other types of tests. It processes the results of the College Boards and makes up a predicted rank list for applicants on the basis of the Board scores. It sets up the placement tests used in many fields and the general proficiency tests for all-incoming graduate students. It also scores all objective tests used in hour and final exams.

Scientific Basis

Testing to provide the basis for concentration advice was started in 1946. Its purpose, as expressed by Dyer, was "to get a series of interest and aptitude tests that could be used to predict the field of concentration in which a student would succeed best."

Dyer points out that up to that time, advice on concentration had been purely subjective. The idea of these new tests was to provide a check by having information on how students who have entered the various fields in the past have done on a series of objective tests.

In the first few years the tests were given with no attempt at prediction of concentration. The effort was to get a backlog of test scores which would provide the check for future predictions.

Now Dyer has the class of 1950, the first class to take the tests, classified by summa, magna, and cum laude, graduation without honors, late graduation, and no graduation. By comparing how these classes of students in the various fields of concentration did on the tests, he can predict what field of concentration would seem to be the best for a particular student taking the tests this year.

The suggestion of concentration is actually based on three factors.

The first is the "general calibre" of the student, taken from the predicted rank list. Dyer points out that certain fields require more general ability than others. For example, students concentrating in Mathematics have an average predicted rank of Group III, while Government concentrating have an average Group IV ranking.

Interest Essential

The second factor--interest--is ascertained from the Kuder Preference test. As Dyer puts it, this, test is simply, "a device for helping you make a detailed analysis of your own likes and dislikes for various kinds of activities."

The questions on this test are all of one type. They ask which one of three activities would you prefer. For example, would you rather 1) build bird houses, 2) write articles about birds, or 3) draw sketches of birds.

From the results of the test each student's interest is classed as either very high, high, low, or very low on a series of nine types of activity. These nine are: Mechanical, Computational, Scientific, Persuasive, Artiste, Literary, Musical, Social Service, and Clerical.

The third factor ability is gained from the complex Aptitude Survey. This survey is composed of 21 different tests, set up to measure the student's aptitude for most important types of operation required in academic work.

It includes tests on number facility, inductive reasoning with number material, spatial relations, non-verbal reasoning, verbal logic, rote memory, verbal fluency and mechanical reasoning. Each student is given a score for each one of the 21 aptitudes.

From the material gathered on the student's "general calibre," interest in various types of activities, and aptitude for, specific operations Dyer attempts to discover which one of the fields of concentration comes closest to fitting the student.

In making predictions, Dyer attempts to pick the essential characteristics in ability and interest which distinguish a student in one field from one in another, and also which distinguish the honors students in the field from the non-honors students.

For example, honors students in Architectural Sciences are uniformly good in algebra and high in picture memory, meaning that the more aptitude you have in these operations the better you will do in these fields. These operations are termed predictive for Architectural Science.

The other type of operation is the minimal. Most Architecture concentrators are average in Arithmetic, superior in spatial relations, superior in design recognition, and superior in non-verbal reasoning. Unlike the predictive operations one does not want to be as high as possible in these operations to do well in Architectural Sciences. Quite to the contrary; the more closely one approximates these rankings the better one seems to do in this field. A low score on a certain operation may be just as important as a high one.

The key interest in Architectural Sciences is the Artistic, in which almost all students score high.

Many times, after Dyer has made his suggestions, a student will come into his office complaining that he is not at all interested in any of the fields. Dyer then attempts to find another field which interests the student and yet ties in with his ability. Dyer points out, however, that interest correlates with ability only "fairly well," and that often a student will be vitally interested in a field but will have no ability in it.

Dyer is very careful to emphasize that this prediction process is "still in the research stage. There is not enough data yet to give up a great deal of confidence in the interpretation of these times." "However," he says, "we have reached a point so that in the next few years we may be able to put our results in a form available to all freshmen advisers to help them help the student in his choice of concentration."

Dyer is particularly interested in concentration advice because he feels strongly that "students select fields of concentration for irrelevant reasons. They go into a field because their room-maters are in it, or because they think it prepares them for a graduate school or a profession."

He believes that one should pick a field of concentration which will provide "the most intellectual stimulation and satisfaction, because the college period is the only time in one's life in which one will get a chance to receive such an experience. The real business of a liberal arts college is to provide this experience."