September 4, 1984

''That's the way it works every year. The stoplights are turned on, they have time to flash once or twice, and then it's time to turn them off.

An Associated Press dispatch from Boston Aug. 17 about an agreement by the General Services Administration to donate and sell waterfront land to the town of Nantucket misstated the political affiliation and hometown of State Senator Paul Doane. He is a Republican from Harwich.

Mayor Koch said yesterday that his administration would stand by the results of the latest police sergeants examination, despite the high failure rate among black and Hispanic officers who took the test. Figures made public last week showed that only 1.6 percent of the black candidates and 4.4 percent of the Hispanic candidates earned passing grades, compared with 10.6 percent of the white officers who took the test, which was given in June 1983. The Guardians Association, a group of black police officers, called on the Police Department to either reject the results or base promotions to sergeant on a quota system instead of on the list of officers who passed the test. The Guardians did not say the test itself was discriminatory, but said the results had a discriminatory impact.

The Economy The economic news is all good for President Reagan in this election year, with interest rates, inflation and unemployment all working to support his policies. But Democratic challenger Walter F. Mondale will try to show that the prosperity in the figures is illusory and threatened by future budget deficits. (Page D1.)

On his office bookshelf, Jaime V. Ongpin keeps a copy of ''Managing in Turbulent Times'' by the American management expert Peter Drucker. ''It makes for pretty tame reading around here these days,'' Mr. Ongpin said, grinning. With a depressed economy, a growing Communist insurgency and the Government of President Ferdinand E. Marcos the target of reformist pressures, the times are unsettled indeed in the Philippines. And Mr. Ongpin, probably more than any other member of the Manila business establishment, has chosen to place himself in the midst of the turbulence.