The Competency of Fifty College Students

No task more worthy of attention confronts the psychologist today than the scientific study of the college student by means of mental tests. Psychological tests were first employed in the examination and segregation of the mentally feeble. A large number of clinics connected with modern school systems, hospitals, or juvenile courts have found these tests of service in detecting mental subnormality. It has only been in the last decade, however, that the possibilities of the psychological examination of "normal" individuals have been recognized, and rapid advances are now being made in this field. The success with which mental tests were used in the classification and stratification of the great mass of men who formed our National Army probably did more to bring about a general acceptance of the method and principles involved than would have resulted from many years of experimentation in peace times. Today, psychological tests are used not only in the field of education but also form an integral part of the selective and administrative machinery of many large industrial organizations. The present vogue of the mental test carries with it one real danger in that the uninitiated are likely to demand more of the psychologist than he can give. Without doubt it is now possible to say, as a result of a psychological examination, that one individual possesses too little mentality to admit of his being a self-supporting member of society, that another can be trained to perform a simple task satisfactorily, that