The standardized educational or psychological tests that are widely used to aid in selecting，classifying，assigning，or promoting students，employees，and military personnel have been the target of recent attacks in books，magazines，the daily press，and even in Congress.（71）The target is wrong，for in attacking the tests，critics divert attention from the fault that lies with illinformed or incompetent tests themselves are merely tools，with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified the results will be valuable，meaningless，or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user. All informed predicitions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance:school grades，research productivity，sales records，or whatever is appropriate.（72）How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount，reliability，and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is who keeps careful score knows that the informati