ABSTRACT
THE results that have been presented justify the conclusion that the science tests are tests of abilities that are involved in the work of the science courses, and that speed of controlled verbal association is related to success in the arts courses. Allowing that there are these special abilities, the next question that arises is whether or no they are easily acquired. If they are easily acquired, then a student who lacks them need not necessarily be deterred from taking the relevant course; if they are not easily acquired, the student who lacks them is liable to have difficulty. One way of attacking the problem is to compare the grades made by Science students in science tests for two or more successive years, and the same for Arts students in arts tests. If the abilities can be acquired in a short time one would expect the students to improve in the tests related to the faculty in which they are working. For purposes of comparison, a group of 141 students will be taken. They all took the 1922 and the 1923 tests, and with regard to their work in their respective faculties they form a very homogeneous group. Of these students 56 were Science and 85 were Arts; 73 of them had also taken the tests in 1921, and for these the results of the 1921 test were compared with the results of the 1923. Thus more than half the group had had two years of work in either arts or science, between the two series of tests. The Arts students average class 4 for the speed of controlled verbal association, in judgment of style, they average class 5, on both the first and the last occasions. Thus, in neither of these tests did practice have an effect. The Science students average class 4–5 in each of the science tests and in each year. The following table, however, shows that there is a slight improvement on each test, not amounting to the difference of a whole class. Average Glass attained by Science Students on Science Tests on first and last occasions of Testing. https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Class on first occasion.
Class on last occasion.
Drawings and Mazes
4·5
4·3
Oral Directions
4·5
4·4
Classification &c
5·0
4·5
Use of symbols
4·5
4·2
