TRICKY TEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1938, Page 12

TRICKY TEST

EDUCATION EXPERIMENT. SYDNEY, August 26. The N.SAV. Education Departmeiy has taken rhe. remarkable step this year of substituting an intelligence rest for the primary final examination, if the experiment is successful, the test will be permanently substituted for the examination. One day this week, 55,000 children in N.S.W. schools faced a paper with SO questions which pj e 7 *-° answer in half an hour. '1 his intelligence test was set by' the Australian Council for Educational Research, and contained such questions as the following: — If a clock showed 2.30 in a mirror what would the right time be?

If B, E, and G were left out, what would be the sixth letter of the alphabet?

What would be the next number of this series: 16}, 17, 17", ISA, 19}? Frank can run as fast as 1 can. Bill can beat. Frank, and Jack can beat Bill. Can 1 beat Bil? Even an intelligence test would not bo right in Australia without a problem on horse racing, so the test included the following: —

There are four horses in a race — white, chestnut, black and brown. The white was first and the chestnut was second. The black was level with the chestnut, and the brown came alter the. black. Where did the brown come?

OTHER PUZZLERS. Other questions were: — A man can run six miles per hour. His son can run six miles per hour. How long will it take them to run the distance between two . cities 12 miles apart? Tom, Jack and John are seated ata round table. Jack is on Tom’s left. Who is on John’s left? • If a man walked east along the street, turned left, and turned left again, in what direction would he be walking? If in a. foreign language “granflot” means bluebird and “fayfiot” means blue sky, what is the word for sky? Another question consisted of several sentences the words of which were disarranged. Candidates had to place the tvords in their right order. After the test one bright boy said it was as easy as winking, but there was too much to do in the time. Nearly everybody apparently agreed that the SO questions were too much for the 30 minutes. In any case, with all due respect to the Australian Council for Educational Research, it might be reminded that psychologists are by no means agreed as to the, value of these trick intelligence tests. And it is on record that a former Minister for Education, Mr. Mutch, referring only the other day to a inner more severe test, the intermediate, said in the Legislative Assembly that he was sure he could not pass it, and he doubted if any other member could.