362 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



Examination papers for both Alpha and Beta are scored 

 rapidly by the use of stencils and the resulting rating is 

 promptly reported to the appropriate military authority. 



By means of this system of examinations it is possible for an 

 examining staff consisting of four psychologists and a force 

 of scoring clerks to examine as many as one thousand men 

 per day. 



Every man examined by one or more of the procedures de- 

 scribed is assigned a numerical rating and in addition a 

 letter grade which indicate his general intellectual ability or 

 mental alertness. The numerical rating is used only for sta- 

 tistical purposes, the letter grade for practical military pur- 

 poses. The latter alone is reported ordinarily to military of- 

 ficers and recorded on the soldier's service record and quali- 

 fication card. 



The letter grades which are in use are defined as follows: 

 A, designates very superior intelligence ; B, superior intelli- 

 gence ; C +, high average intelligence ; C, average intelligence ; 

 C , low average intelligence ; D, inferior intelligence ; D , 

 very inferior intelligence. The letter E has been reserved for 

 the designation of men whose mental ability is seemingly in- 

 adequate for regular military duty. 



Commissioned officers usually possess and obviously should 

 possess A or B intelligence. Many excellent non-commissioned 

 officers possess C or C + intelligence, but in the main this 

 group is composed of men with C + or B ratings. The great 

 body of privates grades C. Men with D or D intelligence 

 are usually slow to learn and rarely gain promotion. Many 

 of them, especially the D individuals, cannot be used to ad- 

 vantage in a military emergency which demands rapidity of 

 training. The results of army mental testing indicate that 

 the majority of D and E soldiers are below ten years mental 

 age. A few fall as low as three or four years. 



The contrast between A and D intelligence becomes im- 

 pressive when it is shown that men of A intelligence have the 

 requisite mental ability to achieve superior records in college 



