The questions on this test are all of one type. They ask which one of three activities would you prefer. For example, would you rather 1) build bird houses, 2) write articles about birds, or 3) draw sketches of birds.
From the results of the test each student's interest is classed as either very high, high, low, or very low on a series of nine types of activity. These nine are: Mechanical, Computational, Scientific, Persuasive, Artiste, Literary, Musical, Social Service, and Clerical.
The third factor ability is gained from the complex Aptitude Survey. This survey is composed of 21 different tests, set up to measure the student's aptitude for most important types of operation required in academic work.
It includes tests on number facility, inductive reasoning with number material, spatial relations, non-verbal reasoning, verbal logic, rote memory, verbal fluency and mechanical reasoning. Each student is given a score for each one of the 21 aptitudes.
From the material gathered on the student's "general calibre," interest in various types of activities, and aptitude for, specific operations Dyer attempts to discover which one of the fields of concentration comes closest to fitting the student.
In making predictions, Dyer attempts to pick the essential characteristics in ability and interest which distinguish a student in one field from one in another, and also which distinguish the honors students in the field from the non-honors students.
For example, honors students in Architectural Sciences are uniformly good in algebra and high in picture memory, meaning that the more aptitude you have in these operations the better you will do in these fields. These operations are termed predictive for Architectural Science.
The other type of operation is the minimal. Most Architecture concentrators are average in Arithmetic, superior in spatial relations, superior in design recognition, and superior in non-verbal reasoning. Unlike the predictive operations one does not want to be as high as possible in these operations to do well in Architectural Sciences. Quite to the contrary; the more closely one approximates these rankings the better one seems to do in this field. A low score on a certain operation may be just as important as a high one.
The key interest in Architectural Sciences is the Artistic, in which almost all students score high.
Many times, after Dyer has made his suggestions, a student will come into his office complaining that he is not at all interested in any of the fields. Dyer then attempts to find another field which interests the student and yet ties in with his ability. Dyer points out, however, that interest correlates with ability only "fairly well," and that often a student will be vitally interested in a field but will have no ability in it.
Dyer is very careful to emphasize that this prediction process is "still in the research stage. There is not enough data yet to give up a great deal of confidence in the interpretation of these times." "However," he says, "we have reached a point so that in the next few years we may be able to put our results in a form available to all freshmen advisers to help them help the student in his choice of concentration."
Dyer is particularly interested in concentration advice because he feels strongly that "students select fields of concentration for irrelevant reasons. They go into a field because their room-maters are in it, or because they think it prepares them for a graduate school or a profession."
He believes that one should pick a field of concentration which will provide "the most intellectual stimulation and satisfaction, because the college period is the only time in one's life in which one will get a chance to receive such an experience. The real business of a liberal arts college is to provide this experience."