This vocabulary test was arranged and partially standardized by Mr. H. G. Childs and the writer in 1911. Many experiments since then have proved its value as a test of intelligence. VIII, ALTERNATIVE TEST 1: NAMING SIX COINS PROCEDURE is exactly as in VI, 5 (naming four coins). The dollar should be shown before the half-dollar. SCORING. _All six coins must be correctly named._ If a response is changed the rule is to count the second answer and ignore the first. REMARKS. Binet used nine pieces and required knowledge of all at year X (1908), but at year IX in the 1911 revision. Most other workers have used the same method, with the test located in either year IX or year X. VIII, ALTERNATIVE TEST 2: WRITING FROM DICTATION PROCEDURE. Give the child pen, ink, and paper, place him in a comfortable position for writing, and say: "_I want you to write something for me as nicely as you can. Write these words: 'See the little boy.' Be sure to write it all: 'See the little boy.'_" Do not dictate the words separately, but give the sentence as a whole. Further repetition of the sentence is not permissible, as ability to remember what has been dictated is a part of the test. Copy, of course, must not be shown. SCORING. Passed if the sentence is written legibly enough to be easily recognized, and if no word has been omitted. Ordinary mistakes of spelling are disregarded. The rule is that the mistake in spelling must not mutilate the word beyond easy recognition. The performance may be graded by the use of Thorndike's handwriting scale. The handwriting of 8-year-old children who have been in school not less than one year or more than two usually falls between quality 7 and quality 9 on this scale, but we shall, perhaps, not be too liberal if we consider a performance satisfactory which does not grade below quality 6, provided it is not seriously mutilated by errors, omissions, etc.[62] [62] See scoring card for samples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory performances. REMARKS. This test found a place in year VIII of Binet's 1908 scale, but has been omitted from all the other revisions, including Binet's own. Bobertag did not even regard the test as worthy of a trial. The universal criticism has been that it is a test of schooling rather than of intelligence. That the performance depends, in a certain sense, upon special instruction is self-evident. Without such instruction no child of 8 years, however intelligent, would be able to pass the test. Nature does not give us a conventionalized language, either written or spoken. It must be acquired. It is also true that a high-grade feeble-minded child, say 8 years of age and of 6-year intelligence, is sometimes (though not always) able to pass the test after two years of school instruction. It is exceedingly improbable, however, that a feeble-minded subject with less than 6-year intelligence will ever be able to pass this test, however long he remains in school.