Character of the Test.
Teachers in schools have for a long while based a large part of their judgment about any individual’s intellectual ability almost exclusively upon the facility with which he solved arithmetic problems. Although the ability to solve arithmetic problems has not been so frequently recognized by investigators as an index of intellectual ability as has ability in English, the teachers have found it much easier to estimate intellectual ability upon the basis of showing in arithmetic, because it is easier to judge of success in arithmetic than to judge of success in English or other fields. A child can either solve the problem or else he cannot. This objective nature of the subject of arithmetic has made it a very important subject for the teacher in deciding upon promotions.
In practical life, arithmetic has been recognized as being of value because the training in arithmetic was supposed to enable a student to keep other people from cheating him in financial transactions. The writers have known employers, on a small scale, who used certain tricky arithmetic problems as the basis upon which to judge the intellectual ability of prospective employees. Arithmetic problems have had and will continue to have a distinctive place in the measurement of intellectual capacity. It is probable that this place is well deserved.
Directions for Giving the Test.
As soon as the candidates are seated, they should be supplied with pencils, and the examination leaflet should be distributed with the instruction that it is not to be turned over until special instructions are given to that effect. In order to keep the candidates busy, the examiner should ask them to fill out the blanks on the title page, giving name, age, etc. When this information has been obtained, the examiner should ask the candidates to read the directions silently while he reads them aloud.
“On the other side of your papers you will find fourteen problems in arithmetic. The first problems are simple and easy and the last ones are more difficult. Begin with the first problem and solve as many as you can in the four minutes after I say ‘Go!’ Write your answer at the right-hand side of the questions on the dotted lines provided for the answers. You may figure on the left-hand side or on the back of the blank, if you wish. Solve as many problems as you can but be sure to get the answer right. Ready! Go!”
Allowing exactly four minutes after saying the world “Go!” the examiner should call “Stop! Turn your papers over. Give them to me.” All papers should be collected immediately.
| Write the answers to these problems on the blanks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Use the other side of the sheet to figure on | ||
| ANSWERS | ||
| 1. | How many are 5 men and 3 men? | .......... |
| 2. | If you earn 2 dollars each day, how much do you earn in 6 days? | .......... |
| 3. | If you have 10 nickels and lose 3 of them, how many would you have after you found 2 of those that were lost? | .......... |
| 4. | How many benches will be needed in order to seat 20 people at a picnic, if 4 people sit on each bench? | .......... |
| 5. | If James sold 3 Sunday papers for 5 cents each and then bought an apple for 3 cents and an orange for 4 cents, how much money had he left? | .......... |
| 6. | How much change should you get from a dollar bill after buying 39 cents’ worth of potatoes, 12 cents’ worth of celery, and 26 cents’ worth of butter? | .......... |
| 7. | If the price of lemons is 2 for 5 cents, how many can you buy for 40 cents? | .......... |
| 8. | If 29 merchants each bought 34 quarts of canned peas at a wholesale house which had previously sold 2,387 quarts of the same brand, what was the total number of quarts of this brand sold? | .......... |
| 9. | If a wholesale merchant sold for $50 sugar which he had purchased for $45 and thereby gained 1 cent per pound, how many pounds of sugar were there? | .......... |
| 10. | If four and a half pounds of fancy onions cost 27 cents, how much will eight and a half pounds cost? | .......... |
| 11. | Half of the people in a certain city block were born of American parents, one eighth have American fathers and foreign-born mothers, one eighth have American mothers and foreign-born fathers, and both parents of the rest are foreign-born. Of the 1,200 people living in this block, how many have American fathers? | .......... |
| 12. | A factory used 1,288 tons of coal in 23 days. During the first ten days after a new addition to the factory was opened, the average daily coal consumption was 78 tons. How many more tons were burned per day than previously? | .......... |
| 13. | A man spent for cigars and tobacco one sixteenth of his wages for one day. He spent five times as much for food, and half of what remained for repairs on his watch, which left him a dollar and a half. How much did he receive per day? | .......... |
| 14. | At the middle of the month a merchant had $1,200 in the bank. He deposited $30 each day for six days and on Monday morning wrote checks for two thirds as much as his deposits for the week. Tuesday afternoon he deposited a check one fourth as large as his balance in the bank. What was his balance on Tuesday night? | .......... |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of problems with absolutely correct answers. No credit should be given for partially correct answers. The total score of the test should be entered on the blank at the lower right-hand corner of the title page.