368 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



standing in college is more likely than others to find his name in 

 ' Who's Who in America.' Phi Beta Kappa men (on the average the 

 upper seventh of the class) are twice as likely to be there as others, 

 and the first man in his class is five times as likely.* 



It is evident that subjects differ greatly in examinability. The 

 results of an examination in mathematics, for example, can be graded 

 with considerable accuracy; they give fairly definite information as to 

 the man's mathematical aptitudes, and mathematical ability is largely 

 innate, so that here the boy is father to the man. The mathematical 

 tripos at Cambridge is a real test. Of the fifty senior wranglers in 

 the first half of the last century a very large number have attained 

 eminence. For example, two of them, Sir George Gabriel Stokes and 

 Dr. 1ST. M. Ferrers, who died within a month preceding the writing of 

 this paragraph, maintained both in mathematical performance 

 and general efficiency the position of, say, first in a hundred given 

 them as the result of a student examination. Two facts should, how- 

 ever, be borne in mind. The senior wrangler is given great oppor- 

 tunity by being made a fellow, and the examination is on three years 

 of solid work. The results of examinations in scrappy courses lasting 

 half a year are not nearly so valid. 



Subjects such as literature and psychology do not lend themselves 

 to written examinations so well as mathematics. I have had the same 

 papers in psychology graded by different examiners and have found 

 great variations in the results. There is some validity in the order 

 of excellence, but scarcely any in the absolute grades, the variation of 

 the grades for the same paper by different examiners being as large 

 as the variation of different papers by the same examiners. I have 

 not, however, confirmed this result by sufficient data. One of our 

 courses in psychology is given by different instructors, each of whom 

 sets and grades papers for the same student. The grades assigned 

 are A, B, C, D and F — excellent, good, fair, poor and failure. Four 

 instructors gave twenty-one men a total of 15 A's, 38 B's, 27 C's, 4 D's 

 and 1 F. When, however, we average the grades of the four in- 

 structors, we get 3B -{- 17C -f- and ID -{-. All the grades are alike 

 within the unit used, except four, and the probable errors of three of 

 the four show that they are as likely as not to fall within this grade, 

 while the probable error of the remaining grade gives it but moderate 

 validity. 



It seems scarcely possible to determine what students are fitted 

 for a college course by means of a written examination; and I fear 



* It must, however, be remembered that the kind of people who are put in 

 a book such as ' Who's Who ' are largely those who talk about things rather 

 than those who do things — the class that receives part payment for its services 

 in notoriety. 



