Technical Report - International Military Testing Association

enlisted personnel evaluated, particulnrly senior tcc!lnicfans and noncommissioned
officers, have not attended a service school course for many
years, if at all. Consequently, much of the material acquired during
service school :raining by such personnel b.>uld not be covered by teuts
restricted to curxent doctrine and matcriai. It should ail&o be obvious
that the highly-motivated, rapid learners k&o do uell in school courses
usually perform better on the job and NOS tests than slow learners and
those not motivated to make the Army their career. Any correlation
between schoo! grades and MS test acores in influenced by the quality
of school training and by lear,ling abilities--motivnticn factore. The
degree to which positive correlations are increased or decrascd by the
quality of school training and its relation-hip to MOS requirements
cannot be determined from the school grades--test score correlations
directly, Additional studies would be required to determi:;e the extent -
and direction of the influence of training upon job success, While
there are probably other reasons why MOS Evaluation Test scores should
not be used to evaluate the quality of service school courses, the four
reasons offered suffice to negate the proposal.
Others have suggested HOS Evaluation Tests be used to determine
whether persons called to active duty in a mobilization may be assigned
directly to a unit or whether they require preliminary training bc fore
assignment to a specialty. The Reserve --National Guard testing program
obviates the need for retesting of members of Reserve and National Guard
units who will be assigned to Active Army units or issued current Active
Army equipment. But HOS Evaluation Tests cannot be used to determine the
abilities of reservists, guardsmen, and draftees to operate, maintain,
and employ the limited-standard, demothballed ,laterial ubed in situations
requiring major mobilization, because MOS Evaluation Tests cover only
current, Active Amy doctrine and material. It would be necessary to
develop additional tests of the abilitles of exeminees to perform the
specific duties of the additional specialties to be used in the mobilized
force and to establish minimum standards of performance for those
specialties to determine which examinees require further training and
which could be assigned directly to a unit. Tests of basic theories and
principles would only rate the abilities of examinees to learn--not to
do. It is possible that time limitations in major mobilizations would
preclude the development of adequate placement tests and that the benefits
derived from such a program would be less than those resulting from the
refresher training of those who pass the tests.
.
Some have also suggested MS Evaluation Tests can be used to predict
how well an examinee will succeed on the job. That is, how will his peers
and supervisors regard him? Certainly, one must agree that such a goal
is desirable, However, the question is: “Is it practical at this time?”
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