Although it is frequently assumed that students who meet college entrance requirements have mastered basic reading skills, the presence of so many college reading and study skills centers argues that such is not the case. Many college students need help with some basic skills. To provide such help, careful diagnosis of individual abilities is needed. This diagnosis should be thorough, including standardized tests, informal reading tests, and speech, hearing, and vision tests. It is important to note that each of these evaluative measures has certain advantages and disadvantages. These should be kept in mind so that the measures can be used with maximum efficiency. The diagnostician should couple the information he gets from tests with information he has gathered from students' records. Finally, he should be able to prescribe possible sequences of instruction based on the skill needs of the individual, as discovered through diagnosis. A bibliography is included. (MS)