Lambda the Ultimate

An simple test that is a good predictor of whether a new student with no programming background will pass a progamming course. The test categorises students into three bins - Students that:

• are consistent (those that answer questions according to an internal mental model)
• are inconsistent
• answer no questions (blank)

There is a good correlation between the consistent answerers and their final exam pass rate:

The paper The camel has two humps and the homepage of one of the authors have more information. Links found from Hack the planet.

The paper (and the reasoning) seem wishy-washy to me - but the correlation is impressive.

If their premise is correct, I wonder if similar tests could be constructed to help sieve for functional programmers, engineers, or any other logical tasks?