In helping professions such as psychology, counseling, social work, and education, it is imperative that we as professionals understand testing and are able to administer them correctly to our clients or students. Tests should be carefully selected, because each has a purpose and, as we know, there are biases in various tests. A biased test is one in which there are methodical distinctions in the meaning of test results correlated to different groups. Most tests are well formulated; however, none are absolute. Tests are often administered to draw substantial conclusions that will affect the test taker's life. The candidate is not aware of these biases that are in favor of or against specific groups of people and the results could have a major effect on the candidate. Testing has become a major aspect of American society. In academic settings, test scores are used to determine whether a student will graduate from high school, select students for admission to college, place students in special education, and a variety of other reasons. In the corporate field, companies can use tests to screen people for placement. In the United States, tests are essential and their results could have a considerable influence on individuals. Despite the commonality of the tests, there is a significant gap in results between individuals of certain races, social classes and geographic areas. It was previously suggested that large gaps in test scores were due to different education systems, but researchers are now looking for other justifications. Is it possible that these tests are wrong? Did they measure what they were supposed to measure? Individuals in the field of education, who agree that the individual...... middle of paper ...... work: Free Press. Hilliard, AG, III (1995), ed. Testing African American Students: Special Reissue of the Negro Educational Review. Chicago: Third World Press. Jencks, C. and Phillips, M. (1998), eds. The gap between black and white test results. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Jenson, A. R. (1980). Bias in mental tests. New York: Free Press.Matarazzo, J. (1972) Wechsler's Measurement and Assessment of Adult Intelligence.Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.Reynolds, CR and Brown, Robert T. (1984), eds. Perspectives on bias in mental testing. New York: Plenum Press. Thorndike, R. (1971). Concepts of cultural equity. Journal of Educational Measurement, 8(2), 63-70. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/pss/1433959Whiston, S. (2009). Principles and applications of evaluation in counseling. (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.