Regarding aptitude tests.

I was reading the latest Seedzine and the discussion of aptitude tests brought back a few memories. Thank-you Gordon, it was a great article. I tend to agree with your assessment on aptitude tests -- that they really aren't worth the paper they are written on, because they try to classify people into groups, without taking into account the persons' drive, motivation, passions or anything else that makes him/her an individual.

I had some of those test too. Tests proved that I didn't have the aptitude to do fine work where a lot of mathematics would be involved. Yet I was an electronic technician.

Three years ago I was assessed by the Employment Insurance agency in Canada. They didn't bother to test me. I was inquiring about applying for government funding to take some IT courses. The professionals decided I did not have the aptitude to operate a computer.

Whether it is tests, family, friends or people in a position of authority, there is someone always someone around to tell you just why you can't do something. You aren't smart enough, you're too old, you're too fat, you're the wrong color, you're just too too.

You have to take a look at the source. Can a piece of paper written by a bureaucrat who pushes pencil at a desk, who has never flown an airplane -- what qualifies him to tell you that you can't? And if he does -- isn't that proof that the bureaucrat or committee or educational institutional has a closed mind on the possibility? If the mind is closed -- how can it accept new data? It doesn't. Can it be right? Absolutely not.

This is why people who are told that they will never walk again -- do indeed walk again. Why people who have had an accident and been told they will never paint again -- but do. They kept an open mind. Even though others close to them closed theirs.

If you believe the aptitude test; if you believe family and friends; if you believe institutions or anyone else on this planet that tells you "you can't" do whatever it is you want to do then you have closed your mind and it IS true.

But if you dare to open it again ... then the possibilities are endless.

That's my 2 cents,
Steve MacLellan


homebusiness-websites.com

I've generally gone out of my way to avoid aptitude tests in general.... I guess I don't want the results to limit my own beliefs about myself!

I like to believe I could do anything as long as I put my mind to it, and I don't need anyone telling me otherwise!

It's by trying new things that I grow and learn.... I hate to be put into a box!

If you look at my background, this tends to be the pattern of my life.... When I started university, I got involved with Student Radio, and ended up doing a regular show on a public radio station in my city. I was seriously considering trying to go into radio as a career.... But then, I decided to go into physics, and ended up getting a Ph.D. Along the way, I learned quite a bit about stock market investing (the "value investor" approach), and now, here I am, just getting into the world of direct response marketing.

I'm sure I could have taken an aptitude test somewhere, which would have told me DON'T do this or DON'T do that, but I don't really want that.... :)

I don't put a lot of faith in aptitude tests! There are a lot of brilliant people out there, whose brilliance is NOT picked up by the aptitude tests....

- Dien

Those were too much fun. It was easy to see the patterns, so I would figure out what I wanted them to tell me about my future career and would rig the answers toward that option.

Yeah, I know you were supposed to be honest about them... but where's the fun in that? :)

> Those were too much fun. It was easy to see
> the patterns, so I would figure out what I
> wanted them to tell me about my future
> career and would rig the answers toward that
> option.

> Yeah, I know you were supposed to be honest
> about them... but where's the fun in that?
> :)

Hi Mel,

That's a pretty funny story.... :)

It reminds me of something a friend of mine told me. He's been a taxi driver in the past (but he's not one now), and he did the IQ test to join Mensa. And he got in!

His secret? He told me, you can actually study for IQ tests.... The more you do, the better your result will be, as you gain experience in doing IQ tests.

Is your so-called "IQ" really increasing as you do more tests? I don't think so, but it shows you can "beat the system" to a degree, by gaining experience in doing IQ tests. This is what he did, and he sailed right through the test to join Mensa....

(I think he's not a member now, though, since he decided he couldn't be bothered paying his yearly membership dues....)

I thought that was pretty strange! But it makes sense, I think no matter how good they make them, aptitude and IQ tests will all have their loopholes.... I think that's a good thing. :)

(I've never done an IQ test.... I prefer to intentionally avoid it, for the same reason I avoid aptitude tests.... I hate being categorized and placed in a "box"....)

- Dien

All through school, whenever I took an aptitude
test, the results always came out to be whatever
I most wanted to do at that time.

Once I thought I wanted to be a draftsman(pre CAD days)
the results were high in art with a bit of science and
math thrown in. Best career choice - Draftsman

Then I thought I wanted to be a mechanical
engineer. On the test that year, I was high in
math and science but low in art. Best career
choice, you guessed it - Engineer.

I got a degree in Economics :)

I really did want the RIGHT answer for what
career to choose but those tests were no help.
I learned, not from aptitude tests, but from
some very good role models the importance of
focused action.

I also learned, much later on, that what you want
and what you are "good" it are two entirely
different subjects. Once you know what you want,
you can learn how to be good at whatever it is
you desire to accomplish.

Les