For me this comes down to the HR dilemma and why I feel sympathy for the dreaded HR drones and in this case for him having to make HR decisions:
They are people responsible for making decisions about applicants they practically know nothing about based on nothing but a bit of self-presentation and ultimately they are in trouble when that applicant turns out to have been the wrong choice, so no wonder they turn to obscure "voodoo" and "dark magic" as sure-fire ways of weeding out allegedly "bad" applicants... in this case instead of a crystal ball he uses a grammar test to make decisions about, amongst others, staffing technical and engineering positions. I am sure a lot of excellent programmers and engineers aren't necessarily the best with words and you have no idea how well they might do by requiring them to pass a grammar test as the bare minimum. You might just as well ask them to paint you a few pictures and then derive conclusions about their mental abilities to picture things and software framework... while there could be correlations, it just has nothing to do with their job and the rest of their skills.

Here is an idea for hiring people and to end this strange fascination that comes with it: building on a core team of excellent people and a good, existing culture you then bring in people mainly through references. I saw this work especially well when bringing in students but it applies to former colleagues as well; they know who the good and the go-to people amongst their colleagues are/were and the good people know it more than anyone else. And they also know the person from working with them so chances are the applicant will be a great fit for the existing team. As an alternative you could let your people teach some classes or give trainings and they will very quickly know who the good students are. Then just hire the applicant and give them a realistic chance to prove themselves in a project. Chances are very good that within a few months or even weeks it will become very clear whether they are a good fit or not. Bad people WILL dis-qualify and alienate themselves, in any healthy organization you can trust on that and if you don't have any good people at all well then your whole hiring-voodoo is pointless anyway because the best new hire will drown in your swamp.

I have seen this work like a charm at my last employer - I was brought in by my Linux teacher who was working there and I went for a beer with the guys, I liked the atmosphere and the people and they could get to know me too and then I showed up to the interview with the CEO in a very relaxed environment and it was pretty clear they want me so we just discussed details and that was it. Efforts on their part were zero and on my part a mild hang-over after a great evening and no stupid self-presentation and applying shenanigans. I have seen people come and go at that place for a few years and without a fail the ones that left were a bad match or just bad employees. The good ones stuck around and I am best friends with all of them, even to this day more than three years after the place went belly-up and I moved to a different country. At that time each one of them found a new job very quickly and a lot of former customers continued to bring them business just because the people were so good and reliable. Each time we get together twice a year now that "old spirit" flares up again and we feel just like in the "good old days". This is also the best network you could ask for, it "grew naturally", if you will.

Hire through references and give people a realistic chance and be smart about managing your expenses, side-effects and repercussions from doing so. I can not see how this is not way more efficient and more reliable than the whole bloated fortune-telling HR mumbo-jumbo.