[6] Groton had recently begun offering scholarships by competitive examination,[7] but its exams bore little resemblance to modern standardized tests.
Sample questions from the 1921 exam included "Name month and year when United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany", "Name three animals that hibernate", and "How is vinegar made?
"[8] Since his parents could not afford to send him to Harvard, Chauncey returned to Columbus after high school and spent his freshman year at Ohio State University, where he studied psychology under Herbert Toops, an early proponent of standardized testing.
[9] An excellent athlete, Chauncey lettered in football and baseball at Harvard (he declined an offer to turn professional with the Boston Braves) and was elected class president.
Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell then gave him a job as the assistant faculty dean and head of the scholarship committee.
[5] Conant provided Chauncey with a financial aid budget and encouraged him to "figure out a way to select the scholarship students.
[5] After evaluating several proposals, Chauncey selected Carl Brigham's Scholastic Aptitude Test, which had been introduced on an experimental basis in 1926 but had not gained significant traction with college admissions offices.
Financial aid was limited (as Chauncey's own experience as a Harvard undergraduate illustrated), and even top universities "were for the most part willing to accept any boys who could pass the [entrance examinations of the period] and whose fathers could pay the tuition.
[19] During Chauncey's years at ETS, the SAT evolved from an Ivy League scholarship examination into a national allocator of student talent.
At ETS, Chauncey periodically considered supplementing the SAT with a wider battery of personality and psychological tests, which were not implemented.