A Work in Commercial Prognosis

Abstract

In the past decade tests have played an important r?le in edu cation. While much has been done in devising intelligence and achievement tests, little has been accomplished in the vocational field. Toops, Bills, Burt,1 and others have done some work with commercial tests. Much of this study has been carried on with the idea of selecting efficient workers in certain vocations, such as stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, comptometry, and the more distinctly clerical occupations, such as filing, checking, and tabu lating. The experimentation has been done largely with high-school graduates who have gone into the industries, with students in busi ness colleges, and with office workers in large establishments. Students frequently enter the commercial department in high school with little or no idea of their fitness for the type of work offered. After a few weeks or a semester, they may find their apti tudes unsuited to the tasks and drop the subject. If a battery of tests could be worked out that would largely determine in advance which students would, and which students would not, be successful in these subjects, such tests would serve a useful purpose.2 Pupils who anticipated selecting a commercial course could, after taking these tests, be classified into three groups: those who ranked as excellent could be grouped in one section; those who ranked as good, in another; and those who ranked as fair, in still another; while those who made a poor showing on the test could be advised to take up some other course.