If I wanted to see if you could play a musical instrument, I might ask whether you played one, which one it is you play. I could then procure an instrument, give it to you and ask you to play, and within a few seconds I would have a fairly good idea of whether you could play or not. I wouldn’t need to bring along years of experience of being on the jury of New Zealand’s Got Talent. Nor would you need to be able to play the most difficult piece of music written for your instrument. And, unless you were playing something by John Cage, the evaluation of your claimed skill would be pretty straightforward. That is the essence of a qualitative test. Read more…