1932 SMS Survey

• Reference:GB 248 UGC 171/7/1
• Dates of Creation:1932-1967
• Physical Description:
  42 volumes, 1650 record cards, 8 files and 1 wooden box

• Administrative / Biographical History

  On June 1st 1932 almost every child attending school in Scotland and born in 1921 took a group intelligence test. The test was a version of one of Sir Godfrey Thomas's Moray House Tests as used in the English 11-plus examinations. In all 44,210 boys and 43,288 girls were tested. The number of children who missed the test was small, and it has been said that "Scotland was and remains the only nation with mental test data for almost an entire birth cohort". The structure of the test was such that it was administered in schools and a number of practice items preceded the test. In the summer following SMS 1932 a sample of 1000 children were tested again, chosen on the basis of birth dates nearest to June 1st. They were tested on the Stanford Revision of the Binet Scale.