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SELECTION OF EXAMINATIONS
Principles governing the selection and construction of tests: Objectivity;
reliability ; simplicity; analogy of test and ability to be measured; resemblance
 to vocational tasks. Sources of material: The vocational apparatus;
former studies of the vocation; general test publications; miscellaneous
sources of information.
THE investigator has at this point chosen a criterion of
success in the profession, occupation, or job being studied,
has selected those who are to serve as subjects for his investigation,
 and has drawn up a tentative list of abilities
considered essential to success in the occupation. He is
now faced with the task of choosing or constructing suitable
examinations for the abilities deemed essential to success.
Later he must test the validity of these examinations. Measures
 obtained with them will have to be compared with the
status of the workers in the criterion of actual vocational
accomplishment, in order to determine which examinations
if any have sufficient validity in predicting success in this
vocation to warrant their use in selection.
Serviceable types of measuring devices from among which
a choice will be made are psychological tests, rating scales,
and certain forms of questionnaires, such as application
blanks and interest analyses. Subsequent chapters will
treat in detail of the construction and use of each of these
types of examination. Here attention is focused on basic general
 principles governing the selection and construction of
measuring instruments. While these principles apply particularly
 to psychological tests, several of them are equally
pertinent to other kinds of device for gaging abilities essential
 to vocational success.