A WORKING MODEL CAPABLE OF RANKING INDIVIDUALS IN A RANDOM SAMPLE FROM A MULTIVARIATE POPULATION BY SOME CRITERION OF INTEREST WAS DEVELOPED. THE MULTIPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENT OF RANKS WITH MEASURED VARIATES AS A STATISTIC IN TESTING WHETHER RANKS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH MEASUREMENTS WAS EMPLOYED AND DUBBED "QUASI-RANK MULTIPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENT." ITS FIRST FOUR EXACT MOMENTS WERE DERIVED ASSUMING THAT THE UNDERLYING PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION IS MULTIVARIATE NORMAL. A RANDOM SAMPLE OF 20 INDIVIDUALS FROM A 6-VARIATE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF KNOWN STRUCTURE AND FOR WHICH THE POPULATION MULTIPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENT IS 0.655 WAS USED FOR TESTING PURPOSES. THE HYPOTHESIS OF NO ASSOCIATION OF RANKS WITH MEASUREMENTS WAS REJECTED IN A TWO-SIDED SIZE 0.05 TEST. THE TRUE RANKS OF THE INDIVIDUALS WERE PREDICTED FROM THE DISCRIMINANT FUNCTION. THE PREDICTED RANKS VARIED NO MORE THAN FOUR PLACES FROM THE TRUE RANKS. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT A MULTIPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENT GREATER THAN 0.655 SHOULD PRODUCE BETTER SETS OF PREDICTED RANKS. PROBABILITIES OF ERRORS IN RANKING SUBSEQUENTLY SELECTED INDIVIDUALS USING THE DISCRIMINANT FUNCTION WAS EXPRESSED AS BEING A DESIRABLE AREA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. OTHER ENTRIES IN THIS SERIES ARE ED 003 044 AND ED 003 046. (HS)