While the placing of a question on a test in a long, often arduous process, the actual marking is an unusually speedy, and easy one. This is made necessary by the large number of exams that must be graded-nearly two-thirds of a million tests a year.

Twenty IBM machines--each capable of marking up to 600 tests on hour--are responsible for all the actual scoring. Machines electrically record the number of right and wrong answers on each paper. Until recently machines merely recorded correct answers but a college board decision to deduct on quarter credit for each mistake necessitated the change.

"Beating the System"

The machine-operated scoring has on occasion tempted students to "beat the system" through the marking of more that one of the numbered answers. Such offenders fall into categories. The first, or "naive" group, will blacken all five of the answer spaces. The second type, a little shrewder, will darken one of the blanks, while placing tiny dots, which will register as correct on the machine, in one or two of the other four' spaces.

Such dubious means, however, are to no avail. While the IBM machine quite definitely falls prey to such goings-on, a half a dozen highly-trained ETS exam inspectors do not. These inspectors examine every answer sheet before it is placed in the marking machines. According to Louis Cozma, head of the ETS marking division, even the cleverest cheating system can be spotted in a matter of seconds.

The incidence of cheating appears to be dependent on what is being tested. The most dishonest answer papers, Cozma reported, are found among those turned in for admission to Law School. Butt even here, he added, the percentage is small.

The Law School Admission test is one of sixteen test programs administered by the Educational, Testing Service. These range in scope from the preliminary Actuarial Examination given each May to a little over a thousand candidates to the College Boards which last year tested over 140,000 candidates.

Newest in the ETS overall program are the various graduate school admissions tests. This group includes test required for all applicants to the University's Law, Medical, Business, and Graduate School. Designed to help determine students aptitude for study in his chosen field, the test has made it possible to apply to many different graduate schools without having to take a test for each university.

Scoring on these tests like a almost all other ETS exams is done on a comparative basis. A student who gets two thirds of the questions right on either the law or business test generally rates as average among those taking the examinations. The medical schools admissions exam is designed so that the average student will get a mere 50 percent.

The admissions officers at the Harvard Law, Medical and Business School all consider the ETS tests as a useful guide in determining the merits of an applicant, But both Lewis B. Ward, Business School Director of Admissions and Louis A. Toepfer, director of Admissions at the Law School rate it subordinate to the student's college grades. Toepfer also noted that a low score on the admissions test does not necessarily mean a low aptitude for law. Kendall Emerson, Jr., who is in charge of admissions for the Medical School, uses the ETS medical exam primarily as a screening test with the main emphasis in considering a candidate placed on the student's "character and overall suitability for medicine."

The graduate schools admission tests are comparative newcomers to the field of educational testing. The Business School exam, for instance, was given for the first time this fall. But even the older Medical School admissions test is a baby compared to the 54 year old College Board Examinations.

The College Board is in a very real sense the father of the seven year old ETS, It was the CEEB, which in 1947 turned over all of its assets in excess of $300,000 to the ETS "in the belief and confidence" that it "would make good tests against which those of other

Below are some sample questions selected from the various ETS graduate school exams. Answers will be found off page 6.

1. Confiscate:rob: : (a) offend:insuit (b) receive:take (c) avenge:punish (d) trespass:walk (e) execute:murder.

2. The residential distribution of families and workers in a city is governed by (a) their length of residence in the city (b) their ability to pay for housing and transportation (c) their scale of value concerning the meet desirable quarter of the city d) the topography featured of the city (e) the location of hospitals and schools.