396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



This has been proved repeatedly by careful tests, and is evident from 

 the erratic clustering of grades around arbitrary points on the scale in 

 every school where the attempt is made to use a scale with thirty or 

 more divisions. 



Individual instructors, in defense of their extreme variations from 

 the mean proportion of high and low grades, often assert that the stu- 

 dents who elect their subjects are much better than the students who 

 elect other courses. Figs. 2 and 8 seem to indicate that quite the oppo- 

 site is the truth. The poorer students elect a larger proportion of their 

 work than the better students from courses in which the number of 

 high grades given is relatively large. The better students elect a larger 

 proportion of their work than the poorer students from courses in which 

 the number of low grades given is relatively large. Furthermore, it is 

 possible to show that the variations in grade distribution do not repre- 

 sent equal variations in the abilities of the groups of students con- 

 cerned. We can demonstrate this by comparing the grades attained by 

 a large number of students in certain departments with the grades 

 attained by these same students in other departments. 



Such a study is summarized in Table III. It exhibits the record in 

 Harvard College of 363 men from twelve classes who later graduated 

 with honor from the Harvard Law and Medical Schools. It gives the 

 exact number of students receiving in a given subject a rank higher 

 than their median rank for all subjects. Thus it appears that English, 

 fine arts, mathematics, classics and modern languages, in the order 

 named, constitute a group in which the grades assigned in this institu- 

 tion are comparatively low. On the other hand, natural sciences, phi- 

 losophy and history and political sciences, in the order named, make up 

 a group in which the grades assigned are comparatively high. At the 

 two extremes stand English, in which 86 per cent, of the students re- 

 ceived lower than their median rank in all subjects, and natural sci- 

 ences, in which 71 per cent, of the same students received higher than 

 their median rank. Furthermore, this table does not represent the 

 extreme variations within departments. The eccentricities of the hard- 

 est markers in English and the easiest markers in natural sciences are 

 here offset by the other markers in each department. "We must con- 

 clude, therefore, that the diverse distribution of grades shown in the 

 figures can not be justified by the unsupported assertion that the stu- 

 dents electing certain subjects have far more ability than the students 

 electing other subjects. 



The question arises whether it is possible to supplant the personal 

 equation as the chief factor in the awarding of college grades by sci- 

 entific guidance? The immediate answer to this question depends on 

 whether the distribution of mental traits in groups of individuals fol- 

 lows any regular law — and for the present on nothing else. The ulti- 



