Tests: Some People Do Better Than Others

Surfing the blogosphere I run across a post entitled “Examination Blanking Out” by Razeet:
Test anxiety is normal and can even help us function well in testing situations. The problem develops when the level of nervousness is so high that it interferes with what one is there to do.
As a result, with two people taking the exact same test, one might be calm, cool and collected, while the other is a pile of perspiration and blanking out.
Now, his post doesn’t have anything to do with Field Sobriety Tests; more likely he’s talking about studying all semester, and cramming for an exam, and still not doing well.
But DWI lawyers should remember that this phenomenon, that ‘some folks do better than others on tests’, and for a variety of reasons, is a well known fact. Indeed, it should be the theme of most DWI breath test refusal trials: starting in jury selection, bolstered by the arresting officer’s own testimony, and repeated in closing.
A series of questions I use at the ALR hearing to set this defense up goes something like this (answers left out – I don’t really care if the officer disagrees):
Officer, you agree that folks in the general public vary greatly in their ability to perform physical tasks?
Some people are gifted athletes, and some people are super klutzy?
Most people are somewhere in between?
Like most characteristics, there’s probably a bell curve of natural physical abilities?
And you’d never met my client before that night?
And you don’t know where on that bell curve he might fall?
He might be an Olympic athlete, or he might be uncoordinated, you just don’t know?
I say I don’t care what the officer answers, because a jury will know that the truthful answer to all these questions is 'Yes'. If an officer disagrees, or ‘weasels’ on one of these basic truths, you may even be better off. You can certainly argue that he graded too hard in his evaluation of your client.
The basic point is this: everyone knows that ‘some folks do better than others’ on all types of tests…including DWI field sobriety tests.