I went through requal training last month and Dean stopped by to talk for a minute. He talked about these pre-screenings. The way he explained it was that at the past interviews, there were a few people (very few people) that were so far from the type of personality they wanted to hire that about 5 minutes into the interview, they were already out of the running. I guess the interviewee looked really good on paper, but in person, it was a whole other story. So basically these phone pre screenings are to save people like that the time of coming to an interview, and the company the time and expense of interviewing someone like that. IMHO, If you got the call, you have the interview, unless you really act like an a$$ on the phone. It didn't sound like they picked a lot more people than they had in the past to pre-screen, thinking half of them wouldn't make it to Phase I. I think that they were just making sure that the folks they did pick to interview are not going to waste everybody's time by showing up.