>>My test would be the literacy of whatever they write.
My associate would agree- he says that's why it's not elitist to focus on degrees and grades. Most candidates have degrees, but since most employees need training, their degree is proxy confirmation that they can stick at something for more than 5 minutes, and presumably can string more than a few words together coherently. He looks at scores in the non math and science subjects as a sign of the quality of essay you can write.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
