WORKSHEETS FROM AN AUTO-INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM IN HIGH SCHOOL ALGEBRA WERE USED TO COMPARE DATA PROCESSING METHODS. IN THE SCRIBE SYSTEM, WORKSHEET DATA IS TRANSFERRED FIRST ONTO SPECIAL SHEETS REQUIRING RECORDING OF ERRORS AND OMISSIONS ONLY, AND THEN ONTO IBM CARDS. THE IBM CARDS CAN BE USED IN A SPECIAL IBM 1620 ITEM DIFFICULTY ANALYSIS PROGRAM. THE SIMPLE MANUAL METHOD RESULTS IN A "CONDENSED TABULATION SHEET," WHICH HAS THE ADVANTAGES OF IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION AND COMPACT DISPLAY OF LARGE AMOUNTS OF DATA, BUT THE DISADVANTAGE OF MANUAL ROW AND COLUMN COUNTS. THE DIRECT KEYPUNCH METHOD USES THE SAME LAYOUT AND CODING AS THE SCRIBE SYSTEM, BUT THE DATA ARE RECORDED DIRECTLY ONTO IBM CARDS WITHOUT THE INTERVENING SCRIBE SHEET. IN THIS COMPARISON, THE KEYPUNCH METHOD WAS RECOMMENDED, FOLLOWED BY THE CONDENSED TABULATION SHEET METHOD WHEN IBM EQUIPMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE. THE SCRIBE SYSTEM WAS RECOMMENDED ONLY WHEN A KEYPUNCH IS NOT AVAILABLE, DATA VOLUME IS LARGE, AND A TIME LAG IS NOT OBJECTIONABLE. A SAMPLE SCRIBE SHEET, INSTRUCTIONS FOR RECORDING WORKSHEET DATA ON SCRIBE SHEETS, A SAMPLE DISPLAY OF SCRIBE OUTPUT, SAMPLE ITEM ANALYSIS OUTPUT, AND A SAMPLE CONDENSED TABULATION SHEET ARE INCLUDED. (BB)