What's Your IQIQ Tests, Training, Puzzles & Research
ENEnglish TRTürkçe ESEspañol DEDeutsch RUРусский ZH中文 ARالعربية HIहिन्दी IDBahasa Indonesia
Take the IQ test
Take the test
More tests
Personality10Big Five, MBTI, DISCPsychology8Mood, stress, attachmentCareer fit12Strengths to job familiesReasoning9Logical, numerical, spatialProgramming15Python, JavaScript, SQLLanguage11Vocabulary and grammarAcademic20Math, science, humanitiesGeneral knowledgeTrivia across topics
All 50+ tests →
Sample item · logical reasoning261220?What comes next? Try a real question first.Try sample questions →
N-back · Stroop · Mental rotationTrain your weakest domain in 5 minutes a day.Browse games →
What does my IQ mean?
70808590100110115120130140150160
IQ percentile chart →Score converters
59 names · labelled by sourceFamous IQ scores — and how far to trust each one.Explore famous IQs →
Tests
Training
Questions
Research
Blog
About
ENTRESDERUZHARHIID
Home/Historical IQ Tests/Detroit First-Grade Test
DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS · c. 1920–1937

The Detroit First-Grade Test: a test for children who can't read yet

Anna M. Engel's group test for children starting first grade was one of a whole family of tests from the Detroit schools. Its 1937 revision, written with the clinic director Harry J. Baker, was a non-reading test built on research with 10,000 Detroit first-graders.

Hear a row, mark a picture →The Detroit family of tests
FIRST GRADE · GROUPNO READING
"Make a cross on the round one."
Our sketch of the format: pictures on the page, instructions spoken by the teacher. Not Engel's own items.
WHY THE DATE IS HEDGEDThis archive says 1925. A June 1921 survey already lists a "Detroit First Grade Test".
O. J. Johnson's Minnesota dissertation, finished in June 1921, lists the Detroit First Grade Test among the group tests for primary pupils that had appeared since 1919 [4]. We haven't found the first edition's copyright date, so this page doesn't claim one. The 1925 in its address is kept only so links still work.Also corrected: the author's middle initial is M., as in the 1937 listing [1], not J.

One school system, a shelf of tests

The Detroit Public Schools' psychological clinic, directed by Harry J. Baker (1889–1981), produced tests from kindergarten to high school [2]. Select a booklet.

First-Grade TestAnna M. Engel · group · first grade
Listed in Johnson's June 1921 survey of group tests for primary pupils. The subject of this page.[4]
THE EXAMINER READS · YOU MARK

Six rows of picture judgments

A non-reading test needs instructions you hear rather than read. Press play to hear each one, then click a picture to put your cross on it.

Rows written for this page. We haven't seen Engel's item types, so the row labels are ours too.
ROW 1 · SHAPE
The instruction is spoken, not printed.
Listen first, then mark one picture.

How the clinic expected its tests to be given

The manual for the later Detroit Alpha test, kept in the Smithsonian, sets out the clinic's working style [3]. These conditions come from that manual, not from the first-grade test.

1A trained proctorThe examiner was expected to have taken "training courses in testing".
2A scripted procedureA "Test Procedure" section gave the examiner a script to follow.
3Calm conditionsA quiet room, pencils not pens, a reliable stop watch, and a "calm and easy manner".
4Letter ratingsScores were turned into letter ratings and logged on a class record sheet.

References

  1. [1]Bibliography listing Engel, A. M. & Baker, H. J., Detroit Beginning First-Grade Intelligence Test (World Book, 1937), "a revision of the Detroit First-Grade Intelligence Test". The Journal of Educational Research, 1938.tandfonline.com
  2. [2]Psychological Test with Directions, Detroit Kindergarten Test. National Museum of American History.americanhistory.si.edu
  3. [3]Psychological Tests, Detroit Tests (manuals, record sheets and keys for the Detroit Primary, Alpha and Advanced tests). National Museum of American History.americanhistory.si.edu
  4. [4]Johnson, O. J. (1921). Non-Verbal Group Intelligence Tests for Primary Pupils. PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota. University Digital Conservancy.conservancy.umn.edu
  5. [5]Psychological Test, Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test (Form M, © 1924). National Museum of American History.americanhistory.si.edu
HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE
What's Your IQ. (2026). Detroit First-Grade Intelligence Test (Engel). In Historical IQ Tests Archive. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from /en/historical-iq-tests/detroit-first-grade-1925
EDITORIAL RECORD
First published2026
Last reviewed1 October 2026
Sources5: a 1938 bibliography, three Smithsonian records of Detroit tests, and a 1921 dissertation
CorrectionsRemoved: the 1925 date as fact; "Anna J. Engel"; "ages 5–7"; "a whole class in about 25 minutes"; "Stanford-Binet 45–60 minutes"; the legacy chain to the Metropolitan Readiness and Bracken tests; "used to identify children needing early intervention, then adopted by many other districts"; "Identification / Comparison / Sequence" presented as the test's sections.
Open questionsFirst-edition date and publisher; the item types and timing; Engel's role at the Detroit clinic
Canonical URLwhats-your-iq.com/en/historical-iq-tests/detroit-first-grade-1925

Related historical tests

The same field1920
Haggerty Intelligence Examination Delta 2

Haggerty's Delta 1 for grades one and two was given in Virginia in 1919. Johnson's survey lists it beside the Detroit test.

InteractiveTake it →
A Teachers College rival1923
Pintner-Cunningham Primary Mental Test

Pintner and Cunningham wrote their test for kindergarten to grade two. It was another attempt at group testing before children could read.

ReferenceRead more →
Young children, another route1926
Goodenough Draw-A-Man Test

Goodenough estimated a young child's mental age from a drawing of a person. Like Detroit's test, it needed no reading.

InteractiveTake it →
Primer-age testing1921
Pressey X-O Test

The Presseys' Primer Scale sits beside the Detroit test in Johnson's 1919–21 list. It came out of their Indiana school surveys.

InteractiveTake it →
Pictures instead of words1918
Army Beta

Beta showed that a whole room could be tested with pictures and demonstration. School tests for non-readers faced the same problem.

InteractiveTake it →
The other kind of school test1922
Stanford Achievement Test

Detroit's tests sorted children by ability; the Stanford measured what they had learned. Both came from the early-1920s boom in school testing.

InteractiveTake it →
Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0. No items from any Detroit test are reproduced here.
BibTeXRIS

Past first grade? Try the adult version of the idea.

Contemporary norms (mean 100, SD 15) and a four-domain breakdown, in about 30 minutes.

Take the modern IQ test →