<p>I believe what an HR person at Google says about correlations when they stop recruiting only at elite schools and start spreading the wealth and recruit at Podunk U.</p>
<p>The Google interview questions are actually analyzed by many already. A relatively smart student can be trained in matter of a few hours to answer most of these types of questions. Are they better “tests” than standardized tests? Absolutely not.</p>
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<p>They do exist, but in miniscule numbers. In 2012, almost 1.7 million kids took the test. A mere 360 scored 2400. </p>
<p>[SAT</a> Fast Facts « The SAT/ACT Insider](<a href=“http://blog.kaplansatact.com/sat-fast-facts/]SAT”>http://blog.kaplansatact.com/sat-fast-facts/)</p>
<p>Right, the number of 2400 scorers is a matter of record, so I agree with LasMa to that extent. Where I think that my view diverges from lookingforward’s: How much effort did the 2400 scorers put into “mastering” the test? I can offer a sample of 3, all with no more effort than reading the material that CB sends automatically when one registers.</p>
<p>This matters in the sense that if you view a 2400 scorer as putting misguided effort into achieving a perfect score, I think you are taking an inaccurate view of people who just walk in, take the test, and walk out with that score.</p>
<p>For one of the few complete and historical studies of perfect SAT scorers, google Tom Fischgrund.</p>
<p>Fischgrund’s book is “complete” in a sense, because it jut involves studies of “selected” students who scored 1600 (old test). Although I have not read the book, the comments in the review by Peachbulb on Amazon make perfect sense to me.</p>
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<p>In many countries, admission to college is determined solely by a test or tests. </p>
<p>In NYC, entry to the best public high schools (Science, Stuy, Tech), is determined solely by a test.</p>
<p>So not explicitly, but yes, it is the only thing used to judge who will succeed in college, or HS, in those cases.</p>
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<p>Apparently they are hiring people who didn’t go to college at all.</p>
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<p>Dear mom, your 2 kids shouldn’t go to college then.</p>
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<p>Was there a point there?</p>
<p>^ There is one actually.</p>
<p>"Apparently they are hiring people who didn’t go to college at all. "</p>
<p>As what? Google is as elitist a company in tech hiring out there if there is one, on par with investment banking. Most people don’t stand a chance of being hired if they don’t attend a top school.</p>
<p>^ Not sure where Mom gets the news. 
But several people I personally know of working at Google all have advanced degrees (many PHDs) in stats, math, and science from top notch schools (MIT, Stanford). Even if there is few who didn’t go to college, my guess is they probably work in very specialized fields in very specific job functions. More important, from a long term view (think next job), it’s much better to have a degree.</p>
<p>From the article I posted.</p>
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<p>I would still like to know what they do.</p>
<p>There are many people out there who work in technology but have never gone to college (I did hear about a guy called Snowden…). However, I am quite certain Google is not recruiting from high schools.</p>
<p>I doubt that as well. It may be older people with experience elsewhere.</p>
<p>@OHMomof2, with all the due respect, you need to read news with your own intelligence and skepticism. There are maybe 100 PHDs Google employed for every 1 high school graduate hired. An HR manager may want to play cool in the media and talk fancy about how Google attracts talents while conveniently ignore the true story behind it.</p>
<p>I can read,thanks. I note his words “So we have teams where you have 14 percent of the team made up of people who’ve never gone to college” don’t specify how many teams have 14%. Maybe a handful. Even if it is every team that’s still 86% college grads, many of whom presumably hold advanced degrees.</p>
<p>But he also clearly states that Google is hiring MORE people without degrees than they did in the past: "the proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time. " </p>
<p>And he is certainly clear about his view of the value of standardized tests in predicting job performance - there is none. And that is the topic here.</p>
<p>@OHMomof2, that’s just one person’s opinion. I can give you many pointers where researches found standardized tests are accurate predictors of future performance.</p>
<p>Assuming that there is little correlation between standardized test scores and job performance at Google, I think the quallifiers need to be added “among people Google hired” and “in the positions for which they were hired.”</p>
<p>There is also an effect that within a sufficiently narrow range of scores, the differences are not meaningful, and so correlations would not be expected. For example, on the SAT M, missing one question could result in a score of 770. I do not think that a student who missed one question is different in any meaningful way from a student with an 800 (who, for a few isolated test dates, might also have missed one question). So if for instance Caltech finds no correlation between SAT M scores and later performance, that would be hardly surprising. They don’t admit students in the score range where you might expect a real difference.</p>
<p>I recall reading a study of graduate admissions in clinical psychology at a university in one of the western states (not California). The authors of the study were surprised to find that undergraduate GPA anti-correlated with GRE scores, among the students admitted to the program. Clinical psych grad programs are fairly competitive, in terms of admission. The outcome is hardly surprising. Students with neither good GPAs nor good GRE scores weren’t admitted. Students who had both good GPAs and good GRE scores went to higher-ranked programs. The admitted group showed anti-correlations.</p>
<p>Personally, I suspect Google has employees who went to top schools but are from other countries who may be geniuses on the technical end while their reading and writing scores might show 500 or 600. MIT does not always require high SAT reading and writing scores from foreign applicants.</p>