The Pintner Test at the College Level

Abstract

The Pintner General Ability Tests, both the Intermediate Test and the Advanced Test, are published in two equivalent forms.1 These tests measure assumedly different aspects of general mental ability through the eight subtests, viz., vocabulary, logical selection, number sequence, best answer, classification, opposites, analogies, and arithmetic reasoning, and they follow the generally accepted exercises which constitute a test of academic aptitude. Apparently no factor analysis of the components of academic aptitude, such as that proposed by Thurstone, has been applied to these tests. The tests have been designed for use in the elemen tary grades and at the high-school level. Because of the ease with which the tests can be administered and scored, we were interested in trying the advanced form at the college level. We administered Form A of the advanced test to the 154 freshmen at Bethany College on October 31, 1938. We already had scores on the 1937 edition of the American Council on Education Psychological Examina tion2 and the Ohio State University Psychological Test3 for this same class. These tests were administered on September 19, 1938 and Septem ber 22, 1938, respectively. In February, 1939 the final academic grades for the first semester and in April, 1939 the mid-semester grades for the second semester were made available. These were put into point average for each student (i.e., credit hours divided by quality points). The 1938 edition of the American Council on Education Psychological Examination was administered to this same class on January 25, 1939. Thus we were able to determine the relationship of the Pintner test with three other tests of mental ability and with academic achievement as measured by