ificance of various I Q's holds only for the I Q's secured by the
use of the Stanford revision. As we have shown elsewhere (p. 62 _ff._)
the I Q yielded by other versions of the Binet tests are often so
inaccurate as to be misleading.

We have not found a single child who tested between 70 and 80 I Q by the
Stanford revision who was able to do satisfactory school work in the
grade where he belonged by chronological age. Such children are usually
from two to three grades retarded by the age of 12 years. On the other
hand, the child with an I Q of 120 or above is almost never found below
the grade for his chronological age, and occasionally he is one or two
grades above. Wherever located, his school work is so superior as to
suggest strongly the desirability of extra promotions. Those who test
between 96 and 105 are almost never more than one grade above or below
where they belong by chronological age, and even the small displacement
of one year is usually determined by illness, age of beginning school,
etc.

CHAPTER VII

RELIABILITY OF THE BINET-SIMON METHOD

GENERAL VALUE OF THE METHOD. In a former chapter we have noted certain
imperfections of the scale devised by Binet and Simon; namely, that many
of the tests were not correctly located, that the choice of tests was in
a few cases unsatisfactory, that the directions for giving and scoring
the tests were sometimes too indefinite, and that the upper and lower
ranges of the scale especially stood in need of extensions and
corrections. All of these faults have been quite generally admitted. The
method itself, however, after being put to the test by psychologists of
all countries and of all faiths, by the skeptical as well as the
friendly, has amply demonstrated its value. The agreement on this point
is as complete as it is regarding the scale's imperfections.

The following quotations from prominent psychologists who have studied
the method will serve to show how it is regarded by those most entitled
to an opinion:--

There can be no question about the fact that the Binet-Simon
tests do not make half as frequent or half as great errors in
the mental ages (of feeble-minded children) as are included in
gradings based on careful, prolonged general observation by
experienced observers.[30]

[30] Dr. F. Kuhlmann: "The Binet-Simon Tests of Intelligence in Grading
Feeble-Minded Children," in _Journal of Psycho-Asthenics_ (1912),
p