Development Of Screening And Selection Tests For Women

Development of Screening and Selection Tests for Women

ASD Technical Note

Restandardization of the Armed Forces Women's Selection Test, AFWST 5 and 6

Since operational conversion tables for the Armed Forces Women's Selection Test (AFWST-5 and -6)-based on a 1961 Air Force standardization--appeared to be scaled somewhat high for WAC potential enlistees, research was undertaken to bring the norms up to date. The tests were restandardized on a sample of 400 WAC enlisted women going through basic training at the WAC Center, and the new norms instituted. As a further evaluation, the basic trainee sample was doubled by including 400 women entering basic training in succeeding classes, and norms were again computed, this time on the larger group. Data were also obtained on 1000 examinees processed at Armed Forces Examining Stations in order to include rejected applicants, and norms were computed on the wider range sample. At the same time, data were obtained by which to analyze the effectiveness of the AFWST as predictor of performance in basic training and in a clerical training course. In the conversion based on the first WAC basic training sample, percentile scores for a given raw score were higher than in the earlier Air Force conversion, and permitted acceptance of a larger percentage of applicants. The two subsequent conversions based on WAC samples were almost identical with the first. The AFWST was found to be an effective predictor of academic grade in basic training. With respect to the clerical course, prediction was substantial both for academic grade and for total grade.