POSERS FOR PUPILS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 72, 25 March 1936, Page 14

POSERS FOR PUPILS.

TESTS IN INTELLIGENCE,

EXAMINATIONS IN SCHOOLS.

Throughout Australia and New Zealand this week thousands of school children are undergoing the Otis intermediate self-adniiilistering intelligence test. A test paper containing a list of 75 questions, these to be. answered within half an hour, was placed before school children in Standards 111. to VII., and to any other children over 10 years of age. Printed samples of questions, with the correct answers, were provided to enable the children to grasp the idea before the test began. One sample was: "A foot is to a man, and a paw is to a cat, the same as a hoof is to a what? . . . (1) a dog; (2) a horse; (3) a shoe; (4) a blacksmith; (5) a saddle. The answer, of course, is 'a. horse.'; so you should have drawn a line under the word 'horse,' and put a figure 2 in parentheses." The' majority of 312 children at the Grey Lynn School were yesterday unable to finish their ' papers. Eight pupils out of 50. in" Standard VI. and one out of 30 in- Standard V. succeeded in completing the paper. Only 24 seconds could be devoted to each of the ■ staggering list of questions, many of which would sorely try even the most astute adult, because many of the questions involved a nice discrimination in the selection of words.

In the schools where the Otis test was conducted yesterday a pictorial test will bo held to-day. The New Zealand Council for Educational Research _is sponsoring the examinations, it beijig arranged that the Australian council should test the school childrcwi of Australia during the corresponding period. This will enable the intelligence of the Dominion children to be compared with •that of the Australian scholars, also that of the United. States and Great Britain. . The value of the examinations could not be fully assessed until the results had been collated and considered.