Using Tests to Select Engineers

Experience in selecting students for admission to undergraduate engineering colleges provides a clear outline for a program of tests and related procedures that should prove helpful in identifying potential engineering talent early in high school. Qualified students may then be guided toward adequate preparation for engineering training. Such a program would include the following as a basic minimum: the students' average grades, tests of mathematical aptitude, reading comprehension, spatial visualization, and interest inventories. A recently revised program of examinations are now available for selecting students for graduate study in engineering. Research is being undertaken which gives promise of the development, in the measurable future, of a means of detecting creative talent for scientific research.