Users Say Aptitude Testing Worth the Risks

By Lois Paul, CW Staff, Computerworld, November 29, 1982.

Despite general paranoia about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a number of companies are successfully using aptitude testing to screen applicants for entry-level programming jobs.

The consensus seems to be that this type of screening saves DP training dollars and is worth the risk of class action suits encountered whenever a qualifying test is implemented, Computerworld found in recent interviews with those responsible for hiring and training entry-level programmers.

An aptitude test "is not going to be 100%, but it gives you a much better probability of the candidate being successful," maintained Bradley W. Nelson, an independent consultant in Renton, Wash.

At the Shawmut Bank of Boston, which uses aptitude tests, only one of 20 people selected for programmer training during the last four years did not complete the program, and that person dropped out for personal reasons. According to Sandra J. King, automated system development training manager for Shawmut, "the key is which test you use."

The test with which King is most familiar is from Walden Personnel Testing & Consulting Inc. in Oradell, N.J. That test takes up to 5 ½ hours to complete and basically simulates the way a person works at a job. The person being tested can even deduct time for breaks.

The Walden test results are evaluated by the testing agency, which provides a percentage score as well as a written narrative. "For example, it would say that 'Johnny Jones performed successfully by doing X number of things. But he did it very slowly or made several careless mistakes. However, the mistakes were of the type that would be picked up during compilation of the programs,'" King explained. So [job applicants] are being tested on how well they read, interpret and execute whatever they have been asked to do.

"It is very similar to what they would do in a programming atmosphere but, at the same time, they don't have to have programming experience or knowledge to work on a test."

Shawmut has not used the Walden test extensively enough to be required to validate it, but King did consult the bank's legal department when the test was being considered for Shawmut use. In hiring, "it seems you are actually safer by establishing fixed criteria and then recording all of your activities," King said. However, she added, "fortunately, we have had enough minority candidates complete the test successfully and then perform well afterwards, so we have not been faced with that issue."

One of King's "biggest bones of contention with regard to aptitude tests" is that some inappropriate ones are used because they are inexpensive. "I don't believe they are aptitude tests. I think they are intelligence tests." The Walden tests and the Berger Aptitude for Programming Test are "ones I consider aptitude tests."

Negative Comments

Several people interviewed by Computerworld made negative comments about the Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery distributed by Science Research Associates, Inc. (SRA), an IBM subsidiary. The John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Boston, however, has had much success with the SRA test since it began using it in 1972. The insurer is currently making a study of the test.

Looking at just one part of the test, Marlene Goldberg, manager of personnel research, said, "if someone scores average or above, they have a nine-in-10 chance of completing the [programmer] training. If they score below average on this part of the test, they only have a one-in-two chance of completing the training."

"In the early '70s," Goldberg recalled, "we went for a brief period of time without using the test at all. Our failure rate was that approximately half the class dropped out. Now over 90% complete the training."

Only three of 80 trainees did not complete the program this year. "We have found that once they complete the training, the test is also predictive of subsequent job performance."

Success Ratio

Ronald Claise, manager of information systems training at ParkerBrothers, Inc. in Beverly, Mass., uses the Wolfe test. He previously used the Berger Test for more than seven years at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. "My success ratio has been basically about 95%," he said of using aptitude tests. "Given a nondiscriminated population, it probably would be about 50%."

Many of those interviewed stressed that testing is only part of the screening procedure. "A test will predict how well a person will learn how to program. It is not going to predict other variables like motivation and communication skills, which are important for a programmer," Goldberg pointed out. These interpersonal skills, she said, will show up in other performance tests.