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MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



[Vol. XV, 



On August 1, 1918, the rating system was revised for both the group examinations and 

 for all three of the individual examinations. At this time grade E was redefined and grade 

 D— was inserted below D. E henceforth was used to designate those who were considered 

 mentally unsuitable for recommendation for regular service and who were therefore recom- 

 mended for special service organizations, development battalions, or discharge. Since fitness 

 for regular service was not considered to depend upon intelligence alone, the grade E was there- 

 fore no longer strictly an intelligence rating. As employed it was applied to many who, on 

 the basis of intelligence alone, would have graded D— or even D. The assignment of E on the 

 basis of a group examination was strictly forbidden. This rating basis, which remained in 

 use until the close of the war, gave the following distribution of grades for the same group: 



Section 2. — Examination for illiterates. 



In the first four camps letter ratings were not assigned on the examination for illiterates 

 (Stenquist skill test). Space was provided on the individual record card for the percentile 

 ranking, but this was not commonly given. The following system of letter rating and per- 

 centile ranking was worked out at Camp Dix from the Stenquist tests of 909 unselected men of 

 the Three hundred and third Engineers : 



When the beta examination was devised a rough attempt was made to equate its ratings 

 with those of examination a, particularly in the middle and upper ranges. The rating basis for 

 beta is set forth in chapter 6, and the modification adopted in August, 1918, together with the 

 reasons therefor are set forth in chapter 7. This final rating basis for beta proved to be satis- 

 factory. 



Section 3. — Individual examinations. 



No instructions were given for the assignment of ratings on the original individual examina- 

 tion series. Space was provided on the individual record card for recording the percentile 

 rank but, owing to the lack of norms, this was not extensively done. When the tests of this 

 series were used at all, the letter rating was assigned on the basis of the personal judgment of 

 the examiner as to the merit of the subject's performance; usually, however, other individual 

 examination methods were substituted for the series originally provided, and when this was 

 done a mental age was assigned in lieu of a letter rating. 



On March 1, 1918, the assignment of letter ratings on performance scale scores was author- 

 ized as follows: 



