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From: blm@cxsea.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: A test of discernment/employment
Message-ID: <2170@cxsea.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Aug-87 11:33:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: cxsea.2170
Posted: Fri Aug 28 11:33:51 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Aug-87 08:47:48 EDT
References: <957@bc-cis.UUCP>
Reply-To: blm@cxsea.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Organization: Computer X Inc.
Lines: 29
Xref: mnetor misc.jobs.misc:625 comp.misc:1134

In article <957@bc-cis.UUCP> preis@bc-cis.UUCP (David Preisler) writes:
|A year ago I stumbled onto this test.  It was given to a Freshman
|English class ( the results were not good ). It might make a good 
|( non-technical ) pre-employment screen...
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|			A Test Of Discernment
|
|Please do exactly as instructed. Ask no questions. Under no
|circumstances are you to speak or ask a question.  Be sure to keep
|your eyes on your own paper.  When you have finished, sit quietly, not
|speaking a word.
|
|1.  Read all directions before you do anything.
...
|20. Now that you have finished reading carefully, do only sentence three.

I was given this "test" in the 5th grade!  And then, as now, I claim that if
you don't answer questions 2 through 19, you haven't completed the test.  You
see, number 1 only tells you to read everything, not to act on what you read.
So a dutiful test taker would read question 1, and act on it by reading the
rest of the test, and ONLY reading the rest of the test.  After all, if you do
act on question 20 during this initial reading, why question 20, and not 13, or
5?

-- 
Brian L. Matthews                               "A man with one watch knows
...{mnetor,uw-beaver!ssc-vax}!cxsea!blm          what time it is; a man with
+1 206 251 6811                                  two watches isn't so sure."
Computer X Inc. - a division of Motorola New Enterprises