NOVEL MENTAL TESTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16610, 6 December 1919, Page 3

NOVEL MENTAL TESTS.

The Columbia University, of New York City,, has adopted a new entrance examination devised by Professor Thorndyke, formerly in charge of tho psychological and mental tests in tho United States army, and recently three largo lecture hails of the university wore filled with students taking the tests in preference to other examinations. The new test, which, it is said, has already been adopted in fifteen other universities there, is calculated to determine whether a student’s mind is of tho proper calibre to withstand the strain of tho study course he expects to undertake. As an example of tho psychological test designed to weigh a man’s soul and gauge his mental capacity, question No. 7 asks tVhy ought every man to be educated? Ho must indicate which of the following answers are tho best: (1) Because Colonel Roosevelt .was educated. (2) Because it makes a. man more useful. (31 Because it costs money. (4) Because some educated people are wise. There are thirty such tests in the examination. No. 11 requires that tho letter “F” should he written before each of tho following statements which could not possibly be true; (1) The dog pursued the stag through the flower gardens in full bloom.” (21 ”A\hilo Sharpening his three-hladed knife my oousm cut his middle finger.” (3) ‘‘Tho red-haired girl in tho corner is tailor than any of hor brothers.” After puzzling over many such questions and pondering long upon any possible impediment to a dog chasing a stag through a blooming flower garden, many of the students, according to the examiners, emphatically wished that they had undertaken tho old-fashioned examinations.