Army Alpha Forms 7, 8, 9 (1918)

WHY FIVE FORMS

Testing 200,000 men a month without leaks

From April 1918, Army examiners were testing more than 200,000 men a month in groups of up to a few hundred. If every room used one booklet, answers would travel through a camp within days. The Alpha was printed in five forms, numbered 5 to 9. Each kept the same structure and difficulty but had different items, so forms could be rotated between rooms and sittings.

All five used the same examiner's procedure and time limits. Their scores were converted to the same A–E letter grades, so a recruit's grade didn't depend on which form he happened to get.

THE FIVE FORMS ON ONE QUESTION

The 1920 key for Test 3 gives the position of the right answer for every form. For the same question number, the correct option moves around:

F5F6F7F8F9

Item 1

11112

Item 2

22222

Item 3

21233

Item 4

13321

Item 5

31322

Item 6

32131

First six rows of the Test 3 key (1920, p. 71). The numbers are the position (1–3) of the best answer.

TEST 3 · PRACTICAL JUDGMENT · FORM 7

“This is a test of common sense”

All sixteen questions of the chosen form, in the original order and wording. Switching form clears your answers. Pick the best of three answers. The recruits had 1½ minutes; the timer below runs the same, and you can finish untimed afterwards.

1:30

1.Why are chairs made of wood? Because

2.If a person asks you for something you do not have

3.If it rains when you are starting to go for the doctor, what should you do?

4.If you are in danger of sunstroke what should you do?

5.If you find a man who has hanged himself, you should

6.Why is tennis good exercise? Because

7.If while on the march you get bitten by a rattlesnake, you should

8.If you are hurrying in an auto to catch a train and come to a broken bridge, what should you do?

9.Why do some people think that short men should be admitted to the army? Because

10.If you find a lost 2-year-old baby on a city street, what should you do?

11.Electric lights are better than gas lights because electricity

12.Why is a check better than real money? Because

13.Five P.M. is the rush hour on street cars because

14.Why should people not waste food in time of war?

15.You should not give money to beggars on the street because

16.A country should have many railroads, because

0 of 16 answered

Items from the Form 7, 8 and 9 booklets, Yoakum & Yerkes (1920), pp. 236–237, 250–251 and 264–265; key from p. 71. Scored as the Army scored it: one point per correct answer. A raw Test 3 score alone was never converted to a letter grade.

THE REST OF THE BOOKLET

Eight tests, same as every form

As with Form 6, Tests 2 and 4–8 of these forms are printed sideways in the 1920 book, and the scanned text is unreadable. They aren't transcribed here rather than guessed. Test 1's oral directions were also written separately for each form; Form 6's are on its own page.

1Following Oral Directions12 items read aloud by the examiner.Per-form script; scan only

2Arithmetical Problems20 word problems.Scan only

3Practical Judgment16 three-choice questions.Playable

4Synonym–Antonym40 word pairs: same or opposite.Scan only

5Disarranged Sentences24 scrambled sentences: true or false.Scan only

6Number Series Completion20 series: write the next two numbers.Scan only

7Analogies40 items.Scan only

8Information40 general-knowledge items.Scan only

Form 7 Test 3 scan (p. 236)Form 8 Test 3 scan (p. 250)Form 9 Test 3 scan (p. 264)Answer keys (pp. 70–77)

1919 · KANSASReprinted for schoolsUnder a 1919 letter of permission from the War Department, the Bureau of Educational Measurements and Standards at Kansas State Normal School in Emporia reprinted the Alpha in Forms 5 to 9 for use in schools. The Smithsonian holds a Form 7 copy.

1921 · NEW YORKBregman's combined AlphaElsie O. Bregman prepared a revised Alpha for the Psychological Corporation that combined questions from all five wartime forms. It is a different test from the Kansas reprint.

READING THE ITEMS NOWCommon sense, of its timeMany answers depend on 1918 assumptions: Form 7 asks what to do about a rattlesnake bite (the keyed answer is to suck the poison out, which is no longer advised) and why you shouldn't give to beggars; Form 8 asks why a married man should be insured. The key rewarded what the test's authors thought sensible. That is part of why the Alpha's results by group were so contested.

REFERENCES

[1]Yoakum, C. S., & Yerkes, R. M. (Eds.). (1920). Army Mental Tests. New York: Henry Holt. Forms 7–9 booklets from p. 233; keys pp. 70–77.archive.org

[2]Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Psychological Test with Directions, Army Group Examination Alpha Form 7 (Kansas reprint; Bregman 1921 directions).si.edu

[3]Carson, J. (1993). Army Alpha, army brass, and the search for army intelligence. Isis, 84(2), 278–309.academia.edu

[4]Wikipedia. Army Alpha.en.wikipedia.org

Editorial record: Test 3 items for Forms 7, 8 and 9 transcribed from the Internet Archive text of Yoakum & Yerkes (1920), with OCR errors corrected; every answer checked against the book's key. The 200,000-a-month figure is from Carson (1993).

KEEP EXPLORING

1918 · Take the full testThe Army Alpha (Form 5)All 200 Form 5 items, playable and scored, with the letter-grade table.1918 · The second formArmy Alpha Form 6Form 6's Test 3 playable, plus its examiner's script for Test 1.1918 · The non-verbal companionThe Army BetaPictures, mazes and X-O series, given by pantomime to recruits who couldn't read English.

Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0; the 1918 test material is public domain.

Army Alpha, Forms 7, 8, 9: three more ways to ask the same thing.

Testing 200,000 men a month without leaks

“This is a test of common sense”

Eight tests, same as every form

Five forms, one grade. Today: modern norms.