LATER MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
In the spring of 1920 E took the Thorndike Mental Tests for Freshmen, for entrance to Columbia College. An official letter from the Director of Admissions at Columbia College states that, "In the Freshmen Tests he was number two, out of 483 entering Columbia College." He was at this time 12 years 0 months old; the median age of his competitors was about 18 years.
ON September 29, 1921, E was examined by means of the Army Alpha (Forms 5 and 6, Examiner L. S. H.) for the purpose of recording his mental development. On Alpha, Form 5, he made a score of 194 points, finishing several of the tests, without error, before the time limit. On Form 6, which was taken subsequently, on the same afternoon, his score was 201 points; and with these, too, some of the tests were finished in about two thirds of the time allowed, without error. As the method of scoring Alpha does not provide for a time bonus, this cannot be taken into account in the formal score.
In April, 1927, at the request of the writer [L. S. H.] E took the tests of the IER Intelligence Scale CAVD, Levels M-Q. This series of tests is described in a recent publication. [9] Briefly it may be said here that this instrument was chosen for the purpose in hand because it is the most thorough method available for approximating in quantitative terms the intelligence of the best among college graduates.
E's score on this test, at Levels M-Q, was 441 points. The score of the average adult is not yet known, but the median score of college graduates in professional schools of first-rate standards is 415 points, with an upper quartile at 421 points. The best scores yet made by college graduates hover about 440 points. [10]
Thus E rates plus 4 PE in relation to college graduates in first-rate professional schools, ranking with the best minds revealed in any group so far tested. These groups may each be expected to include some of the best intellects existing. The comparative groups are, of course, older than E. Some of them are composed of persons over 30 years of age on the average, while all are past 20 years. E was 18 years 9 months of age on the date when he took the test, in comparison with these groups. The number of years lived in an intellectual environment, other things being equal, probably affects results to some extent in favor of those who have lived longer.
A score of 441 points on the IER Scale corresponds to a score of about 116 points on the more widely known Thorndike Tests for College Freshmen. The top one per cent of college graduates make a score of 108 or better on the latter test. E, therefore, surely rates at least in the top one quarter of one per cent of college graduates. [E, it will be noted, was at this time at the average age of college freshmen.]
At the age of 8 years E rated plus 11 PE in general intelligence (by Stanford-Binet) as compared with the generality of 8-year-olds. It seems likely that in these later measurements he rated at about the same status, in relation to the generality of 18-year-olds, since his status is plus 4.3 PE in relation to highly selected groups of college graduates.
E, at the age of 18, was probably mature—or nearly mature— intellectually. However, in view of recent findings in regard to the growth of intelligence among pupils in high schools, we cannot be sure that at this age he has quite reached the maximum of possible accretions of power from inner growth. [11]