TESTS FOR 11-YEAR-OLDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 13 (Supplement)

TESTS FOR 11-YEAR-OLDS.

. A steel battleship floats because the engines hold it up. We see no stars during the day because the moon isn't out. "A stitch in time saves nine" means that you can get ninepence for stitching. These are some of the mistakes which children are invited to make in the "Thanet Mental Tests," prepared by Dr. W. P. Alexander, Director of Education at Margate, and issued by the University of London Press. The tests, which have been employed on some 2000 children, are intended for use at the age of 11 as a basis of selection for secondary schools. In addition to the "aptitude test," frojn which the above examples are quoted, "minimum essentials" tests in arithmetic and English are prescribed. Another aptitude question quotes the proverb, "A drowning man will grasp at straws," and suggests (as well as the accepted meaning of the proverb) that this may mean that a man sinks more easily than a. straw, that straws float, and that those who cannot swim should stay on land. Children are expected to know that "desperate people cling to iiljsurd hopes" is the proper answer. Dr. Alexander's contention is that the successful scholarship candidate should be the child who, having attained the necessary minimum standard of knowledge to profit from his new surroundings, possesses the greatest "aptitude."