Some of these competencies may be rather tradi-
tional cognitive ones involving reading, writing, and
calculating skills. Others should involve what tradi-
tionally have been called personality variables, al-
though they might better be considered compe-
tencies. Let me give some illustrations.
(a) Communication skills. Many jobs and most
interpersonal situations require a person to be able
to communicate accurately by word, look, or gesture
just what he intends or what he wants done. Writ-
ing is one simple way to test these skills. Can the
person put together words in a way that makes im-
mediate good sense to the reader? Word-game
skills do not always predict this ability, as is often
assumed. I will never forget an instance of a
black student applicant for graduate school at
Harvard who scored in something like the fifth
percentile in the Miller Analogies Test, but who
obviously could write and think clearly and effec-
tively as shown by the stories he had written as a
reporter in the college paper. I could not convince
my colleagues to admit him despite the fact that
he had shown the criterion behavior the Analogies
Test is supposed to predict. Yet if he were ad-
mitted, as a psychologist, he would be writing pa-
pers in the future, not doing analogies for his
colleagues. It is amazing to me how often my
colleagues say things like: "I don't care how well
he can write. Just look at those test scores."
Testers may shudder at this, and write public dis-
claimers, but what practically have they done to
stop the spread of this blind faith in test scores?
Some of these competencies may be rather tradi-tional cognitive ones involving reading, writing, andcalculating skills. Others should involve what tradi-tionally have been called personality variables, al-though they might better be considered compe-tencies. Let me give some illustrations.(a) Communication skills. Many jobs and mostinterpersonal situations require a person to be ableto communicate accurately by word, look, or gesturejust what he intends or what he wants done. Writ-ing is one simple way to test these skills. Can theperson put together words in a way that makes im-mediate good sense to the reader? Word-gameskills do not always predict this ability, as is oftenassumed. I will never forget an instance of ablack student applicant for graduate school atHarvard who scored in something like the fifthpercentile in the Miller Analogies Test, but whoobviously could write and think clearly and effec-tively as shown by the stories he had written as areporter in the college paper. I could not convincemy colleagues to admit him despite the fact thathe had shown the criterion behavior the AnalogiesTest is supposed to predict. Yet if he were ad-mitted, as a psychologist, he would be writing pa-pers in the future, not doing analogies for hiscolleagues. It is amazing to me how often mycolleagues say things like: "I don't care how wellhe can write. Just look at those test scores."Testers may shudder at this, and write public dis-claimers, but what practically have they done tostop the spread of this blind faith in test scores?
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