A diagnostic fractions test

Of the many tests which have been devised for measuring the results obtained by instruction in the elementary school subjects, some are suitable for diagnostic purposes. Notable among these are several in arithmetic. The writer feels, however, that there is a distinct need for a diagnostic fractions test which will more nearly determine what difficulties all children in a class are having with fractions than has been determined by the tests in common use. Most of the tests now in use allow only a short period of time, in which the pupil completes as many of the examples as he can. This being the case, the brighter pupils in the class complete most of the examples and are rather definitely diagnosed by a thorough study of their test papers. The conditions are quite different with the slower boys and girls. When time is called, they have completed but few of the examples. Consequently these slower pupils are not very thoroughly measured. Certainly there is no opportunity for diagnosing their difficulties with the many examples which they have not attempted because of lack of time. Wishing to build up a test and to standardize it in such a way that all the pupils in a class will be equally well measured and their difficulties diagnosed to the same extent, the writer has devised a set of four diagnostic fractions tests-one for each of the fundamental operations with fractions and mixed numbers

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