The report reviews recent arguments for directing attention to suitability for a linguistic course of study. A first step in that direction, a Verbal Reasoning Test composed and tried out in the 1975 student selection for English, is described, and the results of this experiment, involving 1046 candidates, are given. The Verbal Reasoning Test is shown to have functioned efficiently and to have predicted success in the selection. The results suggest that the test enhances the discriminatory power of the entrance examination and adds to it a new dimension to supplement the academic achievement and language proficiency criteria used at present. There are also indications that the measure of suitability given by the verbal reasoning test is less dependent on the candidate's regional and school background than the other selection criteria are. The experimentation is to continue in the 1976 student selection for languages. (Author)