Reports and commentary in the media concerning the use of psychological tests in educational, clinical, and business/industrial contexts have become commonplace in recent years. The Gallup polls over the past 15 years indicate that the American people as a whole are in favor of requiring all students to pass a high school graduation examination, promoting children only if they can pass yearly examinations, requiring new teachers to pass a state board examination, and testing teachers and administrators periodically. In the mid-1970s, a Russell Sage Foundation survey of 1450 teachers found that the tests administered, the purposes for which they were employed, and the attitudes of teachers toward testing varied from school to school. A 1982 survey of 457 students at Pepperdine University (California) indicated that college students' attitudes toward oral testing are not very positive. A 1983 survey of students at Pepperdine, the University of North Alabama, and Guiford College (North Carolina) found that most students feel that standardized tests of ability are not good measures of their ability to do college work, are ambiguous and tricky, emphasize memory for detail and make them nervous and upset. Test results and the 1983 attitude questionnaire are included. (BW)