Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990 TAG: 9003061687
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Madelyn Rosenberg
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Those who weren't smoking waited in the trailer, trying to open windows to let out some of the heat. A few chatted nervously with friends.
They were waiting to take a test that could determine their future.
About 30 men and women had gathered on a February evening to take the General Aptitude Test Battery - a 2 1/2-hour test used by many of the New River Valley's larger companies to help screen job applicants.
Some of the test-takers had come straight from their shifts at AT&T - shifts they won't work for much longer. The Fairlawn plant will be closing down over the next year, and 1,000 workers will be out of jobs.
Those and other layoffs in the New River Valley are turning job hunting into a tough competition. This test can make all the difference.
When the test began, the only sound was the light scratching of No. 2 pencils as the test-takers steadily blackened circles on the answer sheet.
I took the test to see what it was like. Some parts were easy, some hard.
The easy parts for me dealt with words. In one section, we had to find words with the same or opposite meaning. Big, Dry, Large, Slow. Old, Green, Glad, Young.
In another, we compared two series of words and decided whether they were the same or different. Smith and Smith.
One of the harder parts, at least for me, was a series of flat shapes divided by dotted lines. The shapes were supposed to represent pieces of metal. We were supposed to pick out the three-dimensional shapes that could be made by bending the metal.
The first two or three weren't too difficult. But the further we went, the harder they got. They were testing our perception and I perceived I didn't do very well.
Math isn't my strong point, and judging from the groans in the room, I wasn't alone.
"Oh, Lord," said a woman to my right who looked to be in her early 30s. "I thought we went to school so we wouldn't have to do this again."
This time, besides the scratching of pencils, an occasional rub of an eraser or a muttered curse could be heard. The movement of the pencils wasn't nearly as steady as before.
The test wasn't all pencils and erasers.
We also had to move pegs around a board to test our dexterity. The room filled with a clacking sound as 30 pairs of hands tried to fit pegs in the right holes.
We also had to pair metal washers with metal bolts and put them in a hole.
I thought that part was fun, but some of the workers said they were so nervous they dropped washers on the floor and in their laps.
There were far too many questions, far too much to do, to finish in the time allowed. I never knew how well - or poorly - I was doing. I later learned the test was designed that way.
"It's an aptitude test," said Melvin Fiel, job services coordinator at the Virginia Employment Commission in Radford. "It would take a genius to be able to finish it."
But the workers, competing for a shrinking number of jobs, still felt pressure.
One said the thought of taking a test made her so nervous that she even went blank on the sample questions she had taken earlier at the AT&T plant.
"I love arithmetic, but I couldn't do a problem," she said. "I know how I am. Put a piece of paper in front of me and I just go blank."
by CNB