Abstract
The comprehensive school in Munich and the University of Munich, Institute of Educational Psychology, are working together on a research project regarding the usefulness of the Kognitiver Fahigkeits-Test KFT 4-13+ (Heller et al., 1985), the German version of the Cognitive Abilities Tests (CAT, Thorndike and Hagen, 1971), for the specific work requirements of the school psychologists at this particular type of school. As comprehensive schools are not common in Bavaria, a short review of the Bavarian school system and the history of comprehensive schools in Bavaria are provided. In the Munich comprehensive school, the fifth, sixth and seventh graders have completed the KFT 4-13+ every year since 1977. The results are used to help the school counselors recommend courses to pupils at different levels. Bringing together theoretical and practical aspects, information is provided about the following topics: changes in intelligence in the school population over the last decade; the stability of the test results in every cohort; the validity of the test for comprehensive schools and its usefulness for school counseling; development of statistical methods; and economic aspects.
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