To the average student, the phrase "prepared by the Educational Testing Service" at the front of a test conjures to the mind a group of bespecacled ogres plotting the destruction of his academic career. In reality, however, ETS in its seven years of existence has raised the standards of testing, to such a height that close to every imaginable organization, from the United States Government, to the Honolulu Board of Education, has requested its services.

Among the tests created and administered by the Service are the college boards, the draft deferment examination, and the various graduate school admissions tests. In all, ETS is responsible for the formation of 16 exam programs missions tests. In all, ETS is responsible for the formation of 16 exam programs.

In their work ETS officials, from President Henry Chauncey '28 down, are guided by the adage that it is harder to make a test than it is to answer it. An exam is usually more than a year in the making and before it reaches the student, it usually goes through several phases of research and experimentation.

On occasion, however, the organization has had to work on extremely short notice. The Selective Service Department did not give Chauncey the final decision on whether it wanted the draft deferment test until March, 1951. It then told the group that it wanted the examination ready for administration in late May of the same year.

Headquarters at Princeton

The overall policy for a test is always determined by the professional group or government agency for whom the test is to be made. But the actual spelling out of the questions usually takes place at the ETS's five story administration-laboratory building in Princeton, New Jersey. If it is an aptitude measure, ETS test specialists, most of them outstanding students just out of college, develop the questions.

If the test if of the achievement variety, such as those used by the College Board, a five man "board of experts" usually prepares the exam. For the "boards" this group is always composed of three men from the college level, and two from the secondary school group. Of the latter group one man will represent a public school and one a private school. ETS is also careful to have representation from women's colleges and from all geographical sections.

This cross-sectioning is very important since a question written for an aptitude test by a MIT math professor might give un unfair advantage to Eastern pre-engineering students. The committee tries to eliminate all items which might prove of particular advantage to one group.

Unfair questions, which manage to slip by the board of experts, are usually spotted in the experimental pre-test, which every question must pass before it is to be included as a bona fide question on an ETS test. Experimental items are often included in the regular college board exams, where the student does not know that the question will not count towards his scores.

After the tests have been marked each question is studied on a special item analysis chart. A question of average difficulty is expected to be answered correctly by 60 percent of those trying to pick one of the five possible answers usually provided in ETS tests. If more people choose a particular wrong answer that the right one, the question is eliminated. This occasionally happens because of ambiguity on the part of the test-maker. An example of this is the following question included in a recent aptitude test.

Impassive:emotion: : 1-inert:motion 2-ambiguous:meaning 3-neuter-gender 4-impartial:opinion 5-ambivalent:decision.

While the correct answer was item four it was found that 43 percent answered number one as against 28 percent who chose four. The obvious ambiguity was eliminated so that the question read:

Impassive:emotion: 1-fatigued: sleep 2-ambiguous: meaning 3-neuter-gender 4-impartial: prejudice 5-ambivalent: decision.

Long, Arduous Process

The new form was them pre-tested and answered correctly by 40 percent of those taking the test. Since those giving the right answer far outnumbered those giving any other, the item was placed on a regular ETS exam.