QUESTION  TRADE  TESTS

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ship  period.  However,  the  dominant  tendency  in  industry ­
  is  the  breaking  down  of  the  trades  into  specialties.
The  overwhelming  majority  of  jobs  to-day  can  be  learned
in  from  one  day  to  three  weeks.  It  is  little  more  than  useless ­
  to  develop  trade  tests  for  such  a  variety  of  quickly
learned  tasks.  It  is  much  more  valuable  to  find  tests  for
innate  specific  abilities,  for  the  lack  of  trade  knowledge
is  not  a  serious  hindrance  for  a  task  which  takes  only  a
short  time  to  learn.
In  order  to  obtain  the  most  efficacious  results  from  the
use  of  question  tests  it  is  highly  advisable  to  ask  the  questions ­
  in  connection  with  an  actual  demonstration  in  a
prepared  demonstrating  room.  However,  it  is  well  to
have  a  short  series  of  prepared  questions  for  use  in  the
employment  office,  in  order  that  the  more  flagrantly  unfit
and  ignorant  applicants  may  be  eliminated  at  once.  Those
candidates  who  pass  this  preliminary  set  of  technical
questions  will  then  be  allowed  to  pass  into  the  demonstrating ­
  room,  where  they  will  be  asked  to  demonstrate
certain  important  activities  of  their  trade  under  the  eyes
of  a  skilled  observer.  In  this  connection,  a  further  series
of  questions  can  be  held  in  readiness,  questions  which  concern ­
  the  actual  work  in  hand  and  also  the  various  tools
which  must  be  used  for  that  purpose.  As  a  preliminary
demonstration  and  set  of  questions,  a  very  successful
procedure  is  to  have  displayed  before  the  applicant  a  set
of  tools,  both  appropriate  and  inappropriate.  The  candidate ­
  can  then  be  asked  to  select  those  tools  which  are
commonly  used  in  his  trade  and  to  name  them  as  he  picks
them  out.  This  is  a  very  simple  test,  but  one  which  has
been  found  very  effective  in  separating  the  sheep  from  the
goats.  The  suggestion  made  by  one  of  the  workmen  and
telated  in  Chapter  VI  is  also  a  very  useful  device.  A  great