Tests of Special Aptitude
A human being is made up of both good and bad, and hence human beings are rightly attributed as of dual nature. Several psychological tests have been developed so far that effectively measures many different characteristics of humans. Among the most popularly used assessment tests are those designed to assess what people have learned- the skills such as reading and arithmetic skills and general information which people acquired through their experiences. There are achievement tests which fall under such psychological tests and they have been extensively developed and standardized for the educational purposes, ranging from preschool through college and job sectors. However, achievement tests are found to focus especially on specific educational achievements or attainments in job domain rather than on psychological attributes.
Organizational and industrial psychologists sometimes use achievements tests in their efforts of developing an overall picture of the individuals they work with. Be it in researches or psychotherapy, psychologists as a whole are much more likely to use to other kinds of tests, though: tests of personality and tests of ability. Online aptitude test measures the capacity of an individual to learn a special skill, needed to perform special work in a specific situation, at a given point in time. Intelligence, as it is made up of a number of abilities, so it is a broad term used to hint at the overall capacity for problem solving and learning new things and acquiring experiences. There is no strict distinction dividing intelligence tests from the aptitude tests. Although the intelligence tests give a used all-encompassing assessment of the intellectual abilities of the candidate, the aptitude test assesses the more specific abilities essential for performing specific occupations and activities. Scholastic aptitude, vocational aptitudes and interests are the two main categories of aptitude.
Scholastic aptitude is more likely to predict success in our academic training years. SAP or the scholastic aptitude test is one of the best of its kind, given to the students who want to enter the liberal art colleges. The GRE or the graduate record examination is specially designed for the individuals who plan to do graduate work, in a number of domains in science and arts. Then there is the Miller Analogies Test which can be used to predict the success and failure in graduate school level. Many graduate and professional schools arrange for different aptitude, interest and personality test, but the applicants need to choose the right one for them, for the job they wish to apply. The tests of aptitude which are conducted online are very different from the paper and pencil tests. The questionnaires of the paper and pencil tests are made differently from the ones which are given in online tests.
The abilities which are assessed by the various tests of intelligence, as well as the scholastic aptitude test, are commonly referred to as the cognitive abilities tests by the psychologists. These abilities are very crucial for getting along in one’s life, starting from school level to the later stages of a job. Since a certain degree of schooling is essential for applying in certain occupations, the concepts, techniques, and knowledge is in their most flexible form when they are learned. Afterward, when you get the job these abilities become less important to you because any organization does not ask you to solve such questionnaires on a regular basis. Although such questionnaires are an appropriate measure of judging, measuring, comparing and assessing your skills, knowledge, expertise, and experience in the subject after you get into the occupation you need to use your acquired and innate skills to solve newer problems.
There are several occupations in which such skills are only required at the entry level, but afterward, they may not count at all. There are even professions like medicinethat require skills such as, feeling for abnormalities, lumps, tying sutures, properly handling the surgical instruments, judging the colour of skin, reading the ECG, X-rays, etc. A large portion of these jobs requires great perceptual motor components. Such physical and perceptual expertise is as popular as the non-cognitive capabilities. Tests are made customized for specific jobs on request of the organizational heads, on behalf of the organization. There are tests for mechanics, assembly line workers, machine operators; they are basically centralized around the measurement of mechanical knowledge on the ability to manipulate objects. All these constitute the general class of the mechanical ability test. The individuals scoring high on one of the mechanical ability tests out of the many is generally expected to do so on the other, as indicated by the high reliability and validity of the tests. Every job is different from the other and hence every job requires different combinations of the mechanical abilities. As a result of this, the quantity of the various tests is growing and spreading at a much rapid rate than expected.
Psychomotor test falls in the second general class of the vocational aptitude test. Psychomotor tasks such as the manual dexterity, muscular strength, speed of response to a signal, steadiness, coordination of many movements into a unified whole etc. are involved in the psychomotor tests. It is not necessary for a person to be exceptionally good at the type of coordination required in operating a tractor or an airplane and in skills of manual dexterity simultaneously. In these cases, psychomotor tests must be refined and the validity of these tests should be rechecked, for this kind of occupations and jobs. Vocational aptitude tests can be utilized both by the employers in their selection procedures of recruiting employees, and also by the vocational counselors to aid individuals in assessing their own attitudes, in different kinds of work.
Obviously, any organization or the industrial psychologists would not conduct a single test to recruit candidates for both kinds of job posts. Different varieties of vocational aptitude tests should be developed in order to solve the growing needs and suitability of various purposes of the different kinds of work. Naturally, organizations will go for those tests which deliver the most accurate results in the shortest possible time.