Aptitude & Achievement

Continually badgered by progressive educators for its cautious, antique ways is the College Entrance Examination Board (TIME, Jan. 25 et ante). This organization, which tests the fitness of some 12,000 youngsters every year to enter high-ranking U. S. universities and colleges, is so crusty that its brownstone Manhattan headquarters does not list a telephone. Last week the Board's new Secretary. Columbia Mathematician George Walker Mullins, who succeeded 71-year-old Thomas Scott Fiske three months ago (TIME, Nov. 2), renovated his hoary service in two ways.

First, to satisfy Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, he ruled that examinees who are applying for freshman scholarships may henceforth take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (established 1926) in April, prior to their regular examinations in June. The advanced date will let applicants know early where they stand, help colleges to allot their scholarship funds wisely.

Secretary Mullins next announced a new General Achievement Test, which will be given along with the aptitude test. The achievement test is so new that Secretary Mullins was not sure what it would be like, except that it would "furnish the participating universities with an instrument that will help them distinguish sharply between mediocre students and those of real promise."

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